"Peas, can I have some more?"

This morning at work, a friend opened up Google to search for something, and the Google icon was made of peas.  I said in passing: "Peas? Is it Mendel's birthday or something?"  Indeed, it is the anniversary birth date of Mendel, aka the Father of Genetics.

It is an apt day for me to take notice, as in the future I will probably most likely be getting to know Mendel, his work and legacy quite extensively.  This fall will be the start of my forays into the world of genetics, officially as a PhD student in Human Genetics.  Sound fancy, eh?  Fancy schmancy... what it really means is that I will dive headfirst into a 4-6 year program (if not longer) that will consist of classwork and a massive amount of lab work.  I will need pick a topic that no one has yet to explore, form testable hypotheses, do extensive experimental research to test such hypotheses, produce conclusions that somehow make my results interesting to the whole of science, and then write up the entire process in boring esoteric language that only other nerds in the field can decipher.  If I am successful at performing all those steps, I will earn three letters at the end of my name.

I must be a glutton for punishment, yeah?  That thought has crossed my mind many times.  Even as I am writing this I think I'm absolutely mental.  But then the nerd inside reminds me of how long I've wanted to be in this position, to be able to study genetics in depth, to play with DNA, to have the opportunity to discover something new... and I get excited all over again.

Oh Baby!