New Fantasy Job

While I would certainly still love to grow up to work at HRDAG (so I can be just like Amelia) I am facing the reality of the fact that they currently employ 1 PhD statistician. And I have this new mentor of sorts, a really excellent professor at another school who has an impressive history working in government, industry, and academia on all sorts of policy issues. And he made the best suggestion today, one that I hadn't even thought of, yet already feels like an excellent fit. He suggested I work for the National Academy of Sciences, where I could advise the government on policy issues, hang out with a bunch of other really smart people from different fields, and work on a wide range of topics and issues. To round out my wish list, he said it shouldn't be too hard to get an adjunct position at GW or Georgetown or American or UMD, so I can keep a foot in teaching. And oh yeah, he knows people at all those places, so just call him up when I'm ready to shop around my resume and he'll make sure it reaches all the right people.

But what really made my heart swell, if I may toot my own horn a bit here, is that a) he thinks my resume is awesome and b) he suggested that the reason he wants to help me get my dream job is because he wants to see more people like me in positions of power - people who care about human rights and social justice and responsible policy decisions.

Who knows? I may just yet grow up to be the person I always wanted/hoped to be.