Dear Janus, Earth Angel:

“The more I am at Stockton University, the more I feel relaxed in the atmosphere.. quiet and peaceful”- excellent, so very important to be relaxed in the place where you spend a lot of your time!

The positivity rocks to promote mental health awareness is a great idea and resource that goes together with what you shared earlier, there being classed that address students’ anxieties.

The birds, the colors, fall leaves, trees, the woods and lake- this is your favorite place. You visited such places in your meditations and dreams for years!

You learned and are interested in the ethics of scientific research, connecting your long-standing interests in science and spirituality (in this post you wrote about Buddhism, karmic influences, the Muslim faith, Catholics and Christians- seems like the latter are present the biggest opposition to the use of embryonic stem cells for research, Wiccans).

You shared about your career class, “Students have an assignment to look for professionals to connect with their career”- excellent. I would like to read about your future experience connecting to professionals, genetic engineers and other professionals in the area of genetics, like the genetic counselor you mentioned.

It is a good thing that you are open to “other scientific fields that (you) can go into”- being flexible this way.

Meditation practice helped you before, so it is a good thing you want to resume it in a consistent manner.

I know that you want to be transitioned to be a guy.

I already consider you a guy.

You wrote that your goal is to live “a life of purpose”, to feel like you are truly living “and not just going through the motions of life”. I suppose the overthinking you mentioned next is a hindrance to truly live. Too much thinking takes us away from our hearts, our emotional experience of life, and locks us in our heads. Truly living does require research and logic, but not so much that we are removed from the emotional experience of life.

“I doubt the science part sometimes, but the Buddhist wiccan and transitioning I don’t  doubt at all”- this is very telling.

You wrote that when you think about these two things (the italicized), “there is a part of me that is being filled with positivity”- I suppose that part of you is the heart (or scientifically speaking, the emotional part of the brain).

The heart is an excellent guide to life decisions and the thinking-part-of the brain, better use it in moderation, just enough to help but not so much that it hinders.

Good to read from you this morning. I hope you have a good weekend!

anita

Dear Janus, Earth Angel (and Poet):

Thank you for your kind words and wishes for me and for all, and for your Healing Blessings Poem. You have a mind very rich of images and a rich, vibrant vocabulary to deliver these images.

I can see a positivity rock in Stockton with your words (and your name, Janus): “May all souls in the universe be healed from the struggles in their life”!

anita

Dear Janus, Earth Angel (and Poet):

I think the above will be my regular address to you, the Poet part is long overdue.

Good thing you have 20 professionals listed in the genetics field, and that you reached out to 7 so far. Hope you reach out to all 20. Preparing questions is a good planning for when they do contact you.

My suggestions:

-Prepare only a few questions to ask each, so to not overwhelm them and so that you will be able to focus on one answer as it is given, instead of thinking about the next question to ask.

-Ask each a few questions for which you cannot find the answers online, or in books/ the library databases, so that you don’t waste their time and yours, questions of the personal kind, so to get more of a feel of what it takes to be a geneticist.

-Consider asking about your doubts, regarding your difficulties with the physics and later, with the organic chemistry class. Check if any of them had similar difficulties, failed a class and so forth.

anita

Dear Janus, Earth Angel and Poet:

I never heard of a “Stress and Anxiety course” and so glad it will be offered in Stockton in 2020 !

An “internship to help (you) gain more insight on genetics research” is an excellent idea. Reads like next Tuesday, 10/29 will be your first phone conversation with a genetic counselor, how exciting indeed.

You are welcome, Janus, and thank you for your kind words and blessings, I wish you the same. Good to read from you and will be looking forward to the next time!

anita

Dear Janus, Earth Angel and Poet:

Taking the Stress and Anxiety class in the Spring semester next year is an excellent idea. Taking the genetics class with this one professor in the Spring semester and then Internship or laboratory research with the same professor in the Fall semester is an excellent plan.

You wrote: “I will look for workshops offered by Stockton University and just search online and books on how to be a better researcher”- workshops, better. You have to have the practical experience of doing in a lab, no reading can substitute for the actual-performing-experience-in-the-lab, which is what you need.

“The labs are what’s most stressful about science classes”- what specifically is it that is stressful to you in the lab setting?

anita

Dear Janus, Earth Angel and Poet:

You wrote that the stressful part of labs for you is recording data during the lab experiments in a lab notebook, and later using that data to write a lab report. Seems like you feel uncomfortable with the “format of the lab notebooks”, its “procedure and details”, and when you struggle during lab with this, there is no one to help you. I agree with you that “learning about how to record data in a lab notebook” is something necessary for you to improve until you are very comfortable with it, if you are to graduate as a anything from a lab technician to a genetic engineer.

Two days before your Tuesday interview with the genetic counselor and you asked me for advice regarding the questions you prepared:

1. “What is a typical day or week like in the workplace for a genetic counselor?”- I would delete the week, because you can’t possibly get a week worth of answer in a few minutes, a day is good enough. I would ask: Is there a daily routine for you as a genetic counselor; what is a typical day for you?

2. “.. what kinds of genetic testing techniques are there?”- I wouldn’t ask that because I bet you can find this information online somewhere or in a specific library, plus you are not familiar enough with techniques used, so you will not be able to process the counselor’s answers. This question is appropriate to ask if you were a working genetic professional yourself, using certain techniques, asking a colleague what techniques they are using.

3- I would ask: what kinds of advice do you offer to people with a high risk for hereditary cancer and are they receptive to it?

Regarding giving advice in the area of developmental delays, depends if it is prenatal and preconception counseling or pediatric counseling. If you don’t know if the person you are interviewing specializes in one or the other (or both, if such is possible), ask.

4. “What kind of education, training or skills does becoming a genetic counselor require?”- I wouldn’t ask that question because you can get this information somewhere else, and this will be a waste of time and may annoy the person you are interviewing. If you don’t know where to find the answer to this question, you can ask the person you are interviewing: where can I find the information on the education, training and skills required to become a genetic counselor?

5- “How do most people get into this field?”- not clear. If you mean to ask how the person you are interviewing personally ended up in this field, ask that

“What are some common entry-level jobs, internships..?” You can ask: is there a publication that I can find online/ elsewhere with entry level jobs, internships etc.? And I would ask: what was your first job coming out of school with your ___ degree, and what was that experience like, for you?

Make questions personal and avoid asking questions when you can find the answer to outside of interviewing a professional (you can ask the professional where can I find information on, instead of asking for the information itself).

Question 6 may be offensive as it may suggest that the person you just interviewed wasn’t satisfactory to you. Instead you can introduce your current status (student, first year in state university, taking X credits, (you can add here that you failed physics in community college and had trouble with organic chemistry) wanting to become a genetic counselor or engineer, do you have any suggestions for me?

(you may want to look at Wikipedia entry on genetic counseling)

anita