Validation

I'm far far away from the lab, at a fantastic and inspiring conference. I gave my talk and poster presentations already and both were a huge success! I shook the whole time of the talk, but thankfully there was a nice tall podium (I'm slightly vertically challenged) that hid me basically from the neck down so I don't think the others could tell! I had no idea how HUGE the room would seem from the podium. I also had no idea how great it would feel to actually hear people tell you that they loved your talk and think your work is really exciting. I'm so flattered. I've even had PIs offer me postdoc jobs! What a contrast from my home institute where nothing is ever good enough and others are always held up as soooo much better than you and told that no one will hire you until you get another (fill in here... result, award, talk, paper...). It makes me feel like it IS actually all worth it. That other people are actually interested in my work too. It's been a great experience. I'm glad there are still a few more days of talks to go... speaking of which, the next session starts soon....
Blogging will still be scarce for the next week or two, since I'm headed home after the conference for a visit with the fam.