"it's the final countdown..."

tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my academic career.

i'd be lying if i said i wasn't apprehensive. i have spent the past year and a half enjoying my leisure time, reading for pleasure, mooching off my parents, jaunting between continents, slaving away at a low-paying job for which i was overqualified, and exercising my liver's full potential. now the time has come to exercise my own full potential. *liver breathes a sigh of relief*

i have used this analogy before, and i am going to use it again: my former co-worker tom (an arachnophile who will never, ever convert me) once told me that scorpions can live in below-freezing temperatures for months by reducing their metabolic rate to that of a growing potato and laying low until it is warm enough to reanimate themselves. today it is summer in the southern hemisphere, the sun is shining, the magpies are squawking obnoxiously outside my window; it is time for the reanimation process to begin.

let me make it clear: i have enjoyed this limbo period immensely. it has solidified my desire to once again join the academic community, and i have chosen a program that is perfect for both my personal and career goals. at this stage i am antsy to start a new phase of my life, and i feel as though i am rested and rejuvenated enough to jump in at full speed. i may have to sift my way through hordes of my foreign physician colleagues to distinguish myself, and i may be the only american in the first year of the program, but goddamn it i am confident in my abilities. plus, i can use my outsider status as an opportunity to be the face of u.s. diplomacy at melb uni's school of population health, a goodwill ambassador of sorts.

so bear with me while i readjust to the idea of actually having to do work in my spare time. i hope to continue posting with some regularity so that my many fans (read: alejandra) will have a means of procrastination.

on a more disturbing note, did you know that danii minogue covered "the final countdown?" because i did not, and i wish that wikipedia had never provided that bit of information. this is borderline blasphemy. i may just have to take to the bottle again (sorry, liver).