2023 and me, a year in 4 parts
Introduction
I began 2023 with a series of revelations. I’d just finished eating a meal prepared for myself and my relatives who’d come over in the evening to help us celebrate in the New Year. It was six of us, each paired off in engaging conversation among ourselves.
I think at this moment in time, I was feeling down on myself. I was nearing the end of my master’s program with no leads on internships in sight. Applying to roles had become a very depressing chore, and despite being optimistic to be a new graduate with the letters “M.S.” in her academic repertoire, it all felt for naught if it didn’t materialize in anything. After all, I liked school, and I really liked my major, and the prevailing advice from the Career Gods on LinkedIn seemed to be that if you liked what you did, the stars would align and everything would fall into place. Well.
Back to the dinner. I remember being enraptured in a deep conversation with one of our guests about public health and policy, and feeling like it was a good conversation. Earlier in the night I’d asked for some help on my trajectory and was given some realistic advice. I don’t really remember the specifics, but I realized whatever it was I wanted out of my degree I would have to go far away to get it. I also felt that my obstacles were surmountable, but the possible paths to navigate made seeing beyond myself a confusing task. And finally, I also realized that I was probably too comfortable in the stage that I was in, and that I needed to push myself to move on.
This was further confirmed by a message my mom received from a relative a few days afterwards, relaying to me a message reinforcing my earlier thoughts.
I want this post to show my journey throughout the year navigating being a student, graduating, and beyond.
Quarter 1 (January through March)
My first quarter was dominated by the usual trappings of studenthood. I was commuting to school and taking classes, and spending my days hanging out in the library, either studying with my friends or by myself. I wasn’t working at this point in time, which, to be honest was probably for the best as I was trying to survive Survival Analysis (lol) and my other courses. I spent this time improving my skillset and spending a lot of energy researching ways to make myself someone worthy of calling herself a biostatistician.
During this time I also was in the process of interviewing for a role, but unfortunately I didn’t make it past the third round. However, I did end up landing in an academic lab for a year providing statistical support part-time for a xenobiotics project, which I was very fortunate to be able to do.
I also had the privilege of attending the American Statistical Association’s Conference on Statistical Practice (CSP) in San Francisco that February. It was a small meeting of mid-career professionals, and it was very cool to see what research projects people were working on with their backgrounds in statistics.
Quarter 2 (April through June)
In my second quarter, I graduated with my degree in biostatistics. It was a huge accomplishment for me given the last few years. And also, this field is entirely new to me given that in the past I studied Microbiology. The fact that I could start a new path and see it through reaffirmed to me that I am capable of anything I put my mind to.
I was also still working at my lab during this time, while planning to go to the American Statistical Association conference that was being held in Toronto, Canada. I was encouraged to go there on advice from a great professor in my program. The CSP had given me a small taste of what the conference would be like and I was excited to seek out more experiences just like it. More than anything, I wanted to see what other people with a degree like mine were doing in their fields, and what viable career paths would be out there for a new grad like myself. It probably seems silly to travel so far to look for opportunities, but to me it felt right. I was very excited to travel outside of my comfort zone by myself to another country where I knew practically nobody.
Quarter 3 (July through September)
In my third quarter, I traveled to Canada for the conference. It was held in the Metro Convention Centre in downtown Toronto, about 15 minutes away from the Toronto Harbor on foot. I had a very fun time, and I met a lot of new people and saw folks from all over the world who had all different kinds of professions that utilized statistics. I met an accountant, an engineer, many professors, scientists in industry, other students and recent graduates, and many others wonderful people. I tried to attend as many talks as I could fit in my schedule. One of my favorite talks was conducted by a panel from the International Statistical Engineering Association, where I got to listen to a statistician at NASA talk about his work and how it relates to a new field of statistics called “statistical engineering”. By the end of the day my feet hurt badly from walking around, but I felt accomplished having spent my entire day networking and learning. I stayed for all four days of the conference.
I also did a lot of sight-seeing. I visited the CN tower (multiple times) and went to a Thai restaurant with the very cool people I met at the conference. It was also Caribana weekend in Toronto and I was able to go to the parade downtown and see some carribean artists in Markham. Towards the end of my trip I got to go to the Toronto Blue Jays stadium and bought a Bichette Jersey. I didn’t end up seeing them play, but maybe next time I’ll have the opportunity to!
Quarter 4 (October through December)
In my last quarter of 2023, I was basking in the glow of being a recent graduate, while also planning my next steps. I continued on at my job while weighing my potential ambitions for further schooling. My master’s degree was a huge step, but I was curious how much further I can go in the field of biostatistics. I think meeting all the very accomplished people at the conference gave me a bit of confidence to continue forward with my education.
Around December, I attended an ASA holiday party with my friends where I got to listen to very experienced statisticians talk about AI and the future of data wrangling.
Wrap-up and Future Outlook
As you can see, my year was pretty eventful. I learned a lot of life lessons that will carry me forward into the new year. I hope to be able to continue to grow in my career as I seek opportunities and look forward to the future. That being said, I leave off with two main goals I want to expand on in the future:
Independent Projects: I would like to do more independent projects so I can continue to grow my skills as a statistician. There’s a world of data out there, I just need some time to sit down and think about what I want to do next.
Blogging: I want to continue posting on this blog. Statistics is a broad topic that can be applied to anything, and I always encounter interesting topics that would make for a good post. I’d also like to reflect on my previous experiences and share professional goals for the future. persimetria –I think– is a good jumping-off point for those ambitions.