I have a J-O-B!!!

I have not been consistent with my blogging. I blame it on my job search/ applications, manuscript writing for publications, and keeping up with my 10-month old infant. I stopped work in April 2013, just some weeks before our son was born. Ever since, I have been blessed by being a stay-at-home-mum and the primary caregiver of our son for these past 10 months. It has been a blessing watching him grow, bonding with him, and just being involved in his day-to-day activities. We go to the public library on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a book reading event and playtime. He gets to interact with his peers, and I get to hang out with other mamas. He goes to the nursery at church, and he actually enjoys himself, as long as he is being carried most of the time. I am about to start planning his 1st birthday. Geez!!! Where does the time go? I remember so clearly when he was just born.

I need to tell you guys the story of how this job came to be. What God has ordained for you, will never ever pass you by. What's yours is yours, come hell or high water.

I received an email from my former department's listserv in September about a cancer health disparities conference at Penn State Hershey on October 31st. Usually, I just delete these emails since I graduated and I get tired of them bombarding me with all these school related email. I decided to open it, because this is an area of research I worked on after my undergraduate degree. It was then I saw that my former boss was one of the keynote speakers at the event. This was a lady that I had been trying to get in contact with for the longest time. She is a big shot when it comes to cancer health disparities. Two things I knew: 1) I had to be there; and 2) I had to be there and talk to her. I then decided to send her an email with my former penn state email, and "Penn State cancer health disparities conference" in the subject line. She replied in less than an hour. Mind you, this is someone I have been trying to reach in forever! With that, I knew she was going to be present at the conference. As God would have it, my husband was off work on that day so he stayed home with lil' man, while I drove 1.5 hours to Hershey, Pennsylvania. 

I met with her and we chatted like old friends, catching up on life and all. That was when she told me that whenever I was ready to get back to work, there was one of her colleagues with an open position. She gave me his email and I contacted him that same day. Before the end of that week, I sent in all my application materials. I had a phone interview, and then an almost full day on-campus interview with about 8 people, and I also gave a job talk. As God would have it, out of all the finalists, I was selected to be a postdoctoral research fellow! I am excited that we get to stay in Maryland, though we may have to move closer to Baltimore. The commute from where we live now to my job is 53 minutes, without traffic.

The same day I got that offer, I got an email that I was one of the finalists selected for a second on-campus interview at another university in Michigan for an Assistant Professor position. I am going for the interview, but I am leaning more towards the 2-year postdoc fellowship. I need all the family support at this time, and being in Maryland close to family gives me just that opportunity. I have the reassurance and peace in my heart that when I complete the fellowship, it will open up bigger and better doors for me in Maryland, because I will be conducting research on a hot new area (that came about due to the Affordable Care Act and so there's loads of money pumped into it). This fellowship pays better (about $11,000 more) than most postdocs even National Institutes of Health postdocs. The Michigan faculty position is about $10- $15,000 more than the postdoc pay. I have no doubt that this postdoc is for me, and it is what God wants for my family and I at this time in our lives.