Feeling connected

It has been almost a full year since I started this postdoc, and I am just now beginning to feel connected to the people here. I had been at my previous university for nearly a decade (undergrad + phD). I had grown so accustomed to knowing everybody and was quite adept at finding virtually all the ins and outs that it was quite shocking to be transplanted to another country, a new school, and a new lab, where I suddenly felt like the newbie.

When I first started here I was lucky enough to have a former grad school friend show me the ropes (she had started her postdoc here a year before me). I'm sure that I would have been even more distraught if I hadn't had her as my guide. It has taken me a long time to start to feel comfortable here - it didn't help that when I first arrived there was no physical space for me in the lab, so I was all by myself on another floor, in an "overflow" lab. For a brief period of time within the first few weeks there was a brand new grad student in that empty lab with me. We became friends quite quickly, but she soon started her rotations and I was once again alone. I spent the first four months in that overflow lab until a space opened up in the main lab.

On the plus side, however, I was able to do loads of martial art practice in that big empty lab with no one around to see me. AND I had a pretty sweet window right by my desk.

But I gave it all up to have some interaction with my lab mates and be in closer physical proximity to PA's office. It's amazing how reluctant I was to just "pop by" PA's office as he had suggested during the months that I was up in the overflow lab. I didn't want to waste my time to walk down a flight of stairs and into the main lab only to find out PA wasn't around.

I should mention that I was offered a space in the lab next door to the main lab. But the space was quite cramped, and I was warned by a few people that it might be better just to hold out for a proper desk in my lab. Since I knew when the person who was occupying my space in the main lab was leaving I decided to tough it out in the overflow lab. I did end up getting a lot of work done there for my first manuscript with PA. So I guess it wasn't a complete waste.

But now that I am in a the main lab I no longer have my swank window with a view. I don't have a window at all. There are four of us crammed into quite a small space (we are the computational folks in the lab) while the bench jockeys take up the rest of the seats (including all the window seats) in the main space of the lab. Sometimes I'm envious of the postdocs at my old university who got their own offices (typically 2 postdocs per office), with windows and everything, in addition to desk space in the main labs. They were really treated like pseudo-faculty which I thought was pretty cool.

But back to the point of this post. I've been immersed in this lab fully now for almost 6 months and am starting to feel like people finally know who I am. The computational folks I feel very comfortable with now - as I did with the people in my old lab. So that is fantastic! I've also been told that they were relieved to have me here, since the person who sat at my desk before me wasn't the easiest to get along with.

I'm even starting to feel less anxious around PA (I'm still a little concerned that I haven't proven myself to him yet) - but PA told me that my manuscript was the only one from this batch (that he has been involved with) that had made it through review! AND yesterday I had a meeting with him where I ended up suggesting a technique to use for an analysis he wanted to do, and he said excitedly "That's an excellent idea! I hadn't thought to use that technique!" to which I replied "Woohoo!" whilst shaking a celebratory fist in the air.