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A life update?

Posted: 27 Mar 2021, 13:32
by Narelle
I wanted to give a small update here about an exciting change on the horizon for me. I know I've talked about this in the past some, but Planet Catfish was absolutely instrumental for me in finding my passion for freshwater fish. I don't think I would be where I'm at today at all if I hadn't found this site years ago when I was trying to ID the little catfish I bought that wasn't what it was sold as.
(A sold as . Now my favorite fish!)

I was accepted to a PhD program for the coming fall! I'm really excited, it's an absolute dream of an opportunity. A better fit in so many ways than I expected to have the luxury to be picky about.

I'm one step closer to becoming an ichthyologist!

It's important to me to share the news here because I really want to express how much I appreciate this website and all of its contributors. I worked hard to get where I'm at, but I was inspired to do so in great part by the wealth of knowledge and quality of discussions here. You're why I got into science! And I wouldn't be pursuing a career doing that without an interest in reading literature sparked by what I was reading here.

Thank you all so much for doing what you do.

Re: A life update?

Posted: 27 Mar 2021, 14:09
by bekateen
Hi Narelle,

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful update. Great success to you in the future, Dr. Narelle! :-)

Woohoo! Congratulations! :banana-blonde: :banana-blonde: :banana-dreads: :banana-angel: :banana-dance: :banana-blonde:

Cheers, Eric

P.s., What school (or do you not want to say yet)?

Re: A life update?

Posted: 27 Mar 2021, 15:03
by Narelle
Thank you! Still probably a little soon on the "Dr." title, but I'm very much looking forward to earning it.
bekateen wrote: 27 Mar 2021, 14:09 P.s., What school (or do you not want to say yet)?
Texas A&M! Their Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program.

(A very long time ago I sent a pm to @Silurus and this school (and PI) was among his recommendations for places to try to go for undergrad. I was too late in asking to really utilize this advice for undergrad as a lot of the applications were already closing at the time, but I revisited the it when researching grad schools to apply to so it was still extremely helpful, which I don't think I sufficiently expressed when we originally corresponded. Thank you again for the help, Silurus!)

Re: A life update?

Posted: 27 Mar 2021, 15:25
by bekateen
Terrific!
Narelle wrote: 27 Mar 2021, 15:03Still probably a little soon on the "Dr." title, but I'm very much looking forward to earning it.
Just a matter of time. You can do it. ;-)

Re: A life update?

Posted: 27 Mar 2021, 15:45
by MarcW
Congratulations on getting accepted to the course, and thanks for the update, I remember reading your thread in 2014 asking about further education in this field!

Good luck I hope it goes well and you are able to find a job which you enjoy.

Re: A life update?

Posted: 27 Mar 2021, 18:34
by Viktor Jarikov
Great news! Congratulations!

Re: A life update?

Posted: 27 Mar 2021, 19:48
by Jools
What a brilliant thread. Makes it all worthwhile and then some. Thanks for telling us, it means a lot. Please do keep us updated with your progress.

Cheers,

Jools

Re: A life update?

Posted: 28 Mar 2021, 11:00
by Silurus
Narelle wrote: 27 Mar 2021, 15:03 Thank you! Still probably a little soon on the "Dr." title, but I'm very much looking forward to earning it.
bekateen wrote: 27 Mar 2021, 14:09 P.s., What school (or do you not want to say yet)?
Texas A&M! Their Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program.

(A very long time ago I sent a pm to @Silurus and this school (and PI) was among his recommendations for places to try to go for undergrad. I was too late in asking to really utilize this advice for undergrad as a lot of the applications were already closing at the time, but I revisited the it when researching grad schools to apply to so it was still extremely helpful, which I don't think I sufficiently expressed when we originally corresponded. Thank you again for the help, Silurus!)
Kevin your advisor?

Re: A life update?

Posted: 28 Mar 2021, 15:25
by fishguy1978
Congratulations. Good luck with your studies.

Re: A life update?

Posted: 28 Mar 2021, 17:14
by Narelle
Thank you all for the encouragement and kind words! I will definitely keep up the updates, Jools.

Silurus wrote: 28 Mar 2021, 11:00 Kevin your advisor?
Yes! I'm very excited to be working with him.

Re: A life update?

Posted: 29 Mar 2021, 01:31
by Silurus
You're not working on any projects involving Pseudolaguvia, are you? I am supposed to help out (at Kevin's request) on these.

Re: A life update?

Posted: 31 Mar 2021, 02:29
by Narelle
We haven’t discussed anything about Pseudolaguvia specifically, but we haven’t talked about specific projects I’d be working on yet. A couple months ago we talked about a lot of exciting potential directions we could go, but nothing definite.

I only just got the news on the admissions decision and we haven’t really had a chance to talk much since then.

Re: A life update?

Posted: 31 Mar 2021, 08:51
by Jools
I think you also have the record for the longest Bagrid wish-list too - we should have known... :-)

Jools

Re: A life update?

Posted: 31 Mar 2021, 21:18
by racoll
Congratulations Narelle! Kevin's a great guy. You'll have an awesome time.

PlanetCatfish is the main reason I got into ichthyology, and I think probably the same for a few others too, like Milton.

Jools has a lot to answer for ;)

Re: A life update?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021, 07:49
by Jools
That's kind, but it's the whole team that has a lot to answer for.

Apart from sitting in a Planet Hollywood restaurant waiting for a burger and thinking, hey, maybe the world needs Planet Catfish, my role has mainly been to field the rotten tomatoes thrown when the internet was adolescent. Being passionate about catfishes made it easy to otherwise build this fantastic repository. Keeping the biotope acceptable for all those that drop by is also fun. I'm happy to stay that our visitors continue to be new and (relatively!) old faces which is also great.

Cheers,

Jools

Re: A life update?

Posted: 03 Apr 2021, 23:53
by Narelle
Thank you, racoll! That's pretty neat that there have been a few people in this boat. Excited to join the club!

This place is definitely something special, whoever we want to blame for it. I'm very glad I found it when I did!

Re: A life update?

Posted: 14 May 2021, 12:33
by Narelle
I thought I'd tack one more thing on here - I graduated from my undergraduate program this past weekend, and thought you all might appreciate how I decorated my cap.

Image
( It came out much messier than planned, as I was very short on time to put it together and didn't realize some of my paints were overdue for being replaced. Not bad for sure, but my other main hobby is art so this wasn't quite up to par for me. ^^;; But hey, still looks neat! )

Re: A life update?

Posted: 14 May 2021, 12:43
by Shane
I love it!
-Shane

Re: A life update?

Posted: 14 May 2021, 13:16
by bekateen
Spectacular! I bet that mortar board got noticed.

Congratulations!

Cheers, Eric

Re: A life update?

Posted: 17 May 2021, 03:16
by Viktor Jarikov
Thank you for sharing. It's refreshing and pleasant to see!