things work

Actually I have done a lot of things personally and professionally.
I was writing about my background, career goals, etc. for the grant I'm going to apply for. I wanted to mention all the information relevant to the proposed project, and I found almost everything I did in school was relevant. I didn't pave this specific journey on purpose although I did know the direction I was going. Now looking back, things did line up pretty nicely toward where I've wanted to go.

I mentioned what kinds of education I received in the National Yang-Ming University.
I mentioned Tzeng and Hung, of course. I got even quite emotional, so overwhelmed that I emailed them thankyou notes.
I had seldom mentioned about Henrich Cheng, however. This time I did. Because participating in his research projects is now in fact nice experience to mention.
I had seldom mentioned about my internship in the National Taiwan University Hospital, either. This time I did. However, I decided not to put the fact that I passed the exam for being certified as a medical radiation technician. Well, it is not relevant and the certification has been expired for long.
I did also play and party quite hard. But it is not relevant to the grant writing either.

How could I did so much in undergrad years? I didn't have summer or winter vacations? No, I didn't! I always stayed near school and did tons of things near school. The fact that my home was in the same city played a role. The first time I was away from school in summer was 2003 after my first year of graduate school in the US. I went home for two months.
Gosh... I was such a good student. Correction: I was so good at school. I was in school for 27 years, including kindergarden years. My profession was being a student.
After describing my undergrad "achievements" for a half page, I told a story about my grad years for almost two pages. My record stunned myself. Did I really accomplish all those? In school, there were deadlines for everything. Time to go to a class. Time to take exams. Time to finish a project. Before I had time to fool around, thing were done, and the next thing was coming.
Gina once said "其實我也是個人才啊" ("actually I am pretty talented") while she was working on her resume. Now I kinda felt the same way. Who knew writing a grant would boost your self-esteem? Life is wonderful.

When designing the experiment for my doctoral dissertation, I went to a university near Philadelphia to ask a professor some questions. This professor, CF, was the person who originally proposed the theory that I was testing in my project. He was so nice and friendly and easy to get along with. Later on we greeted each other every time seeing each other in annual conferences. This year in a conference held in Boston, he asked me if I'd like to collaborate with him for he would like to explore the possibility of working on spatial neglect. I was very honored. After the conference, he did email me for arranging a meeting after the holiday season.

I was supposed to go to UPenn frequently for an fMRI project. However, administrative delays always can prolong the delay. The project has been discussed even before I moved to New Jersey. The project has been approved in UPenn a year ago. But the project has not started. Oh well.... During the process, I met a professor, AC, who was a former colleague of my boss. He gave me the similar first impression that CF gave me. They were both nice, calm, humbly smiley, bearded, and soft talkers. I liked the conversations with him. Today when I was reviewing my research record, I came up with a proposal to AC. I emailed him and asked him to be the co-investigator on the project. He accepted it! I was so glad. He made my day.

I would never imagine this in my late teens and early 20s when I was a busy undergrad or when I was struggling how to write my first English term paper. Even two years ago, I would not imagine how things have worked themselves out as if I was simply taking a ride. Yes, the ride was sometimes tough, but I survived. Now I seem to live on those things and see how far things can take me.

Things will work out as long as I keep being persistent and pushing things to work out.
This is what I've learned about things and myself today.