Women rock!

So I am graduating in June, and looking for something to do next. J is switching jobs here in Seattle, and so for the first time in my adult life I am not willing to move anywhere for a great job. I get email announcements all the time about postdocs in exotic foreign lands (Europe, Africa just today), the exciting and dynamic Northeast corridor of my youth (DC, PA, NC). I spent my 20s trouncing all over the place from one cool job to the next, so this is a change of pace, and has been very hard for me to do, trusting that life will still be good even if I'm not chasing a job.

But for the first time, I have put family first (rather I have a family to put first), and decided to stay here and make it work. And if I don't get something? I have bubba. Really. Win-win, right? It's so amazing to me, how standing your ground seems to make things move in the right direction (ask me the story of my wedding sometime). Because as soon as I brought my focus here, to Seattle and family, I have some very rich possibilities for after graduation. Mostly opportunities facilitated by my female professors who have families themselves, and get it.

So anyway, I met today with one of my favorite professors, who has invited me to join her grant as an investigator. And doing so would probably "require" me to get (yay!) some sort of university appointment. It would be doing projects that are way cool and that I am trained for. And it would be part time. Seriously, if I could imagine the perfect post-graduation setup? It's pretty much that. It might not happen, of course. The project might not be funded. I might find something else. Etc etc. But it COULD. And to have advocates that support my decision, it's huge.

Do you have a story of a great teacher or mentor that helped you at a critical point?