An orchestra integrates disparate instrumental sections to achieve beautiful musical harmony. In the same way, for personal and professional success I seek to balance family life with the demands and pressures of a postdoc's life. Conducting experiments, completing data analysis, writing and hearing cries of "Daddy, you're home!" are the quaint sum of my typical day. Science consumes my mind and my pipetting hand. Family consumes my heart. Striking the balance is often challenging, especially when things get hectic in the lab. Happy Valley, or so they call it, is the home of Pennsylvania State University, where I study the mechanisms governing gene regulation in baker's yeast using a genome-wide approach. As a new postdoc, I am struggling with Robert Frost's literary fork-in-the-road decision: Do I pursue a career in academia or industry?
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