On Friday I had my last day of work at my old job in the rice lab.

It was a bit anticlimactic to leave because a lot of the people I wanted to say goodbye to weren’t there on my last day.

Still, my two supervisors were there. We went out for coffee and talked about my future plans.

It was kind of nice to talk to them as friends. I heard about their families and what their lives are like. I’d like to be in their place in a few years, minus the Chinese immigrant status.

I packed up all my stuff from my job: computer, lab pants, old cords, and old notebook.

I had to leave behind a few things as well like my keys, my new notebook, and a few data sheets that are probably irrelevant at this point.

The last few weeks at work have been a little boring.

I was originally hired to sequence the genome of rice leaves, but that project got passed on to other people.

I was then put on a project of organizing the huge database of rice seeds in the storage room (probably over 10,000 varieties of rice all thrown into cardboard boxes).

I finished that project in June.

For the past two months I’ve been keeping an eye on the rice plants in the greenhouse and doing regular maintenance stuff in the lab.

It wasn’t anything fancy, but it wasn’t particularly challenging either.

I started at my Master’s program today and I felt a lot better almost the instant I stepped on campus. I get to learn things again! I’m so excited!

While it was sad to leave my old job and even sadder that I left it with a whisper instead of a party, I’m psyched for what’s coming in the future!

-Mister Ed