Inspiration

Life has been going incredibly well for me lately, as the month of July usually is for me... That’s not to say that it has been without its difficulties, but those challenges only serve to add value to my character and make the good times seem even better. It’s easy to be inspired when things are going well, but I am definitely not taking it for granted. The new challenges, incredible people in my life, and beautiful locales that I find myself in make for a very inspiring life.

As much fun as I've been having here in AZ, it was certainly pleasant to escape the Valley heat and head back to the Midwest. It is home, and always will be, and the peace that I felt as I touched down in Louisville was overwhelming. The simple pleasures in life are sometimes the best, and home is definitely one of them.

I stepped off the plane into a humid July night, hopped into my rental car, and had my favorite radio stations dialed into the presets before I even pulled out of the parking lot. As I cruised north on I-65 with the windows rolled down and the radio blasting, I had compiled top ten list of things that I love about coming home before I had even reached our driveway. 1. Downtown Louisville. The familiar buildings, landmarks, and Waterfront Park… small enough to be friendly, but big enough for lots of culture and things to do. Love it, and keep it weird! 2. Cool temperatures. Pretty self-explanatory, here. So simple, but so nice. 3. Kennedy Bridge. It’s the first time I’ve seen in painted in years, and it really was special all lit up and reflecting off of the mighty Ohio. 4. All of the amazing radio stations, especially 91.9, that play all of my favorite indie bands and loads of others whom I haven’t heard about yet. I really miss it, and my day was made with the first few notes of Rogue Wave on the radio. 5. The smell of red clover in a freshly cut hay field. Heavenly, indescribable. 6. The sounds of the cicadas and crickets in the woods. Again, a comforting, beautiful sound. 7. Mosier Knob. When Supertramp’s Take the Long Way Home came on 107.7, I decided to take their advice, and wound around the southern Indiana hills at midnight just because I could. 8. Lightning bugs out in the fields. We don’t really have them out in AZ, and I forgot just how special they are. 9. Tassled corn. The sight and smell of it brings me right back to lazy days of my childhood down at the swimming hole. Good stuff. 10. Country roads. The grid system of greater PHX makes it easy to navigate, but fairly boring. They don’t write songs about the grid system: long and winding roads, they’re a different story. The time I spent back in the land of green fairly flew by as I made good use of those country roads.

For the first part of my trip, I got to interact with some of the top scientists in my field at the Plant-Based Pharmaceutical Symposium, had my best research presentation to date, got a tour of one of the leading bioprocessing plants in the country, and learned about careers that I didn’t even know existed. By the end of a very full two days, my head was crammed with new information and exciting new possibilities for research and my life. To say that I was inspired would be an understatement.

I also spent some amazing quality time with family and friends while touring around my home state: picking veggies at Dad’s in Floyds Knobs, a quick visit with my Gran, a cruise through Pekin and Salem, Em’s birthday in Indy, a nostalgic trip around Purdue, some crazy homemade wine-fueled antics with Jessie on Daisy Hill, and a little walk with Mom on the farm. The whole trip relaxed me in such a complete way that I haven’t felt for a long time. After months of preparations for my comprehensive exams and the conference, it felt incredible to have successfully finished everything, and it shone in my eyes every second that I was there. It really was the perfect way to end a few stressful months, and as I rocked to the gentle riffs of Band of Horses on the front porch, watching the sun come up over the woods and fields, I knew that there was nowhere else that I would have rather been at that moment.

That’s not to say that I haven’t had those moments back here in AZ… on the contrary, I’ve managed to have some pretty kickass adventures on the weekends even during the craziness of preparing for my comps. And the smile on Tsafrir’s face when he informed me that I had passed is one that I will not soon forget.

So, I returned from my Midwest excursion to the start of the monsoon season here in the Valley, and am now back to the life that I’ve made for myself here. It’s good to be back to bench research, back to my Arizona family, and back to adventures that can only be had in the great, wild West. Stay tuned for more… I should be a little bit better at the blogging now that life has returned somewhat to “normal.”