Hello all of you beautiful people!

So, 2021 came and went like an unwanted llama that stumbled into your house. Noisy when it arrived, bucked you in the gut just when you thought you calmed it down, and then spat at you on the way out. Now, we begin 2022 with a fresh coat of llami spit in our eyes that is stinging more than we would like.

And it stinks. Did I mention that? Llama spit is actually llama vomit from their pre-stomach called the rumen. Again, this metaphore is becoming more and more apt as we analyze it.

But, it is the start of the new year, which means… new goals!

You’ve probably noticed that my first post is not the “venoms/toxins” one that I mentioned on my Instagram (@gettingthescience), and that’s because December and the beginning of January have overloaded me a bit with work. On the plus side, I am getting a bunch of experiments done and taking care of my mental health while balancing the work of rewriting an F31 grant, but on the other hand, I am coming home pretty exhausted and just wanting to curl up in a corner to listen to music.

Which makes is super hard to get blog writing done. (It’s coming, it’s just been put on hold for a bit. My goal is to have that out before the end of January)

But even with all of that, I wanted to take a moment to celebrate what I have done this past year!

1) Passing my last class: No more classes for me! I even finished my Teaching Assistant requirements!

2) Turned in my first F31 grant: This is the grant that gives me money from the NIH, and is 60+ pages of me convincing the committee that my reserach is awesome and deserves to be paid.

3) Did not catch COVID in 2021: At risk of jinxing myself for 2022, I do want to celebrate that I did not, in fact, catch COVID during this past year, and got my third vaccine dose before the end of the year.

4) Got into a science communication Fellowship: That’s right folks! Your girl here is going to become specifically trained in science communication! It’s a program run by the University’s museum and will be starting in March!

5) Had a blast with FranlkinZpeaking podcast: Nerded out with Semanti and talked about my research about cool platelets and LGBTQA+ in STEM! Check it out here!

And now, for the goals!

1) Post more often: I want to get back to what I had during 2019-2020, where I was posting on a pretty solid schedule before grad school mixed with COVID.

2) Have guest bloggers: I’ve been wanting to do this from the beginning, but I really want other scientists crazy about science fiction to write posts covering their fields. This is because I, a humble pathologist who only really studies platelets, have a limited scope of expertise. I have a couple of people in mind to ask, but if you are a scientist who has an idea for a post for Getting the Science Write, contact me via Instagram @gettingthescience or via twitter at @beccmel2

3) Blog for other sites: There are a few more science blogging websites that allow for guest writers. I’ll definetly post my work on here as well with a link to the original website!

4) Pump out more of the Worldbuilding posts: I honestly don’t know if people enjoy these (I don’t get data for my website, believe it or not), but I have a blast posting about these. I have a ton of ideas, many of them inspired by letters written back and forth between me and another scientist buddy throughout the pandemic.

5) More posts inspired by readers: Hey, if you have an idea that you want me to cover in a post (as someone did through my instagram story, check those out), let me know! I want to write on what interests you guys as well!

6) Figure out how to get rid of those weird ads at the bottom right above the comments: I swear, those are the ugliest ads I’ve seen, but they unfortunately come with the coding for the comment section… which sucks. Please contact me if you have ANY idea how to get rid of these ads.

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That is really all that I have for you guys! Let’s wipe the llama spit out of our eyes, and press onward to a new year!

-Becca