I cannot recall ever having to make sacrifices in my life. It has always been easy for me to do what I want to do, without having to encounter too many obstacles or give up things I hold dear. I have been blessed as far as my talents and abilities are concerned, and have never had to worry about financial matters. It was always something that I've taken for granted...maybe I've kidded myself what 'sacrifices' I've made are admirable and something to be proud of. As I've gotten to know some of my colleagues at the Institute better, I've had a better perspective on such things.

Most of us in the STScI summer program of 2004 are either physicists or astronomers, but there are a few exceptions. Raquel Shida might confuse you a bit if you ever met her. She looks every bit the average Japanese girl, but if you try to speak to her in Japanese (as I did), she would give you a confused look. That's because she isn't Japanese, but a Brazillian. In the same way I'm ethnic Chinese but Malaysia, she's ethnic Japanese but of Brazillian nationality. Her project is pure astronomy, mostly data reduction, and she's totally commited to her work, more so than anyone else...she is almost always in the office, late into the nights and in the weekends. But she's not an astronomy or physics student...she's a third year ARCHITECTURE student. But she's a very avid amateur astronomer. For scientists, one important sign of achievement is the amount of papers published, and Raquel has TWENTY FOUR papers listed to her name in the NASA abstract retrieval service. She has been observing variable stars, and writing papers on her observations. She's obviously as passionate about astronomy as most of us, if not more, yet she isn't doing a related subject. When we asked her about it, she said that she wasn't sure about of being to make a living as an astronomer when she was first applying for university, and decided to go for something safe instead. But it seems that now, she has decided to go for her interest, and she'll be wanting to do a physics or astronomy degree after she finishes the current degree.

Melanie, or Mel is from UCL as well! However, she's 3 years my senior, and she just graduated and is going to do a PhD in Cambridge this upcoming academic year. She seemed like just a typical bubbly girl around our age, except that she isn't our age. She's 27 years old this year, and her path to astronomy was not easy. She did a degree in accountacy at first, before realising that she hated it. After graduating, she had to work for a couple of years to earn money before going into a degree course in UCL. She said she couldn't bear the thought of slaving away for 30 years in accountancy, even if the money was good, so she'd rather earn less as an astronomer but be happy. It must have been difficult to take the plunge and do something new at the age when most other people are starting their working careers. I do not know if I would have had the courage to do the same in her place.

I have had a privileged life, and I shouldn't complain when little problems and setbacks turn up in life. I've already had a good hand of cards dealt to me from the start.