During my time in California, I got to thinking about this story…

When my sister turned 16, my parents gave her a Pontiac Fiero. (If you are unfamiliar with either “Pontiac” or “Fiero” click here). It is a car that looks sort of like Back to the Future’s DeLorean but with doors that opened properly (if you have no idea what I am talking about- you are too young to be reading my blog). What you might be able to tell from the picture is that the headlights popped up out of the front of the car. Kind of like big eyes that only opened at night. What might not be obvious from the picture is that this car was a true two-seater. There was no smooshing in a third person. So in the years before I had a license, I was in competition with my sister’s best friend for who got to go places or do things.

One Saturday in the summer my sister and her best friend decided to go to the beach. It’s been several years now so I don’t remember why I got the call- It could have been that our parents were out of town (they did a lot of traveling during this time) or it could have just been that I was always the one that got the calls that she was running late or that something had happened and could I please let our parents know. Either way, I got a call that morning that she had been in an accident. She assured me that it was just a fender-bender and that they were going to continue on their way to the beach.

We had curfews because that was the way our household was. I assume, in retrospect, it was because our parents had been wild in their youths and it never occurred to them how boring we actually were (“please let me stay out one more hour?!!! how will I ever know how Time Bandits ends?!!?”). So my sister knew she had to return home before midnight. She got in after I had gone to bed so we talked in the morning. Come to find out, her minor collision had dented the front of her car in such a way that her headlights (those big beautiful night-time eyes) couldn’t pop-up. Now, either she didn’t check this after the accident or she didn’t care… but to be clear, that meant she drove 1  hour and 45 minutes on the highway in a black car with no headlights after 10pm. This is obviously 1) illegal and 2) reckless. But she made it home without being stopped and without another accident.

Why I am writing about this almost 20 years later on a blog about science?

It is a reminder that life is about risks. Some of them are calculated and some are not….

I am already six months into my position here in Denmark. Which means I need to start thinking about my next position. I need to decide if I want to start applying for “grown-up” jobs or if I want to keep post-docing. If I want to try to get a grant. How and if I want to return to the US.

At this point, I feel like I am leaving Laguna Beach without headlights… Hopefully I have my sister’s luck.

(image borrowed from http://www.gmtuners.com/Customer/LaFollette/index.htm)