Go for the Gold!

While on my mission I contacted Dr. Hawkins to see if I could work for him as a grad student. 

In other words, I was asking him to be my advisor. He said yes! 

I told him I wanted to get a Masters...he told me to get a PhD. :S

I didn't want to be in school for another four to five years!! I expressed my hesitation and here's what he told me: "If you're in a race, are you gonna go for the Bronze??? Or the Gold???" 

That's all he had to say and I was sold! That was my answer...if I was going to work under him he wanted my very best and that would be the PhD program. 

I wasn't personally convinced that this is what I wanted to do (PhD as opposed to Masters) until today. I went to Yue's graduation ceremony and it inspired me. 

Dr. Hawkins and Yue

Yue has been my mentor for the past three and a half months. She taught me everything I know about my current research project and now I'm basically taking over where she left off. She's been a great teacher/helper/friend and I wanted to support her at her graduation ceremony.

I'm really glad I went! Something inside me changed...

I remember when I was in high school and a similar thing happened to me. We were at the scholarship assembly and I must've been a freshman. As I watched a student accept the Kekaha School Scholarship I told myself, "That's gonna be me one day!" It was like my own self prophecy. I could feel it in my gut and I was determined to work for it. Four years later, I was the one who walked up to the stage to receive that scholarship. My "prophecy" came to pass. 

Today I had that same feeling. 

As I watched Yue accept her diploma I thought to myself, 

"That's gonna be me one day."