STARD9: A Felicity Moment

Most folks don’t like to talk about their work outside the workplace. Work is exhausting, and most of us are just trying to get through the week. 

Not me.

I love my research.

If skipping in the rain is a Felicity moment, then talking about a strange protein called STARD9 is definitely a Felicity moment. Because I talk about my research so much, a good friend of mine gave me a “STARD9 Quota” for the academic year. Therefore, I am posting this Felicity moment today, so as to share why I talk about my research and why it makes me so happy to do so.

My job is not just a job. It is not just something I do. 

If anything, my job is a part of who I am.

We are all given a role in the world.

Although our careers are just a part of our vocation, we often forget that our work life influences every other aspect of our lives. Yes, we can compartmentalize and avoid talking about our work, but we cannot avoid the fact that each career, each job, each contribution to the economy comes with a unique culture.

Being a scientist is so much more than sitting at a bench, teaching classes, or writing grants.

What most folks do not see is the cultural aspect of science. It varies a little bit between each field and sub-field, but there are some experiences we all share as scientists. We all share the struggles with funding, even in a good economy. We all share a dependence on government money to work, regardless of our political affiliation. We all share the grueling experience of graduate school, which is an experience filled with late nights, stressful conversations, examinations, and risky experiments.

We share a culture of hard work that often goes unnoticed.

We share a culture of perseverance during adversity.

We share a culture of faith in logic and reason.

As one might imagine, there are many difficult days as scientists. Our lab has a unique way of dealing with that: humor. It’s rarely about science, let alone our research, but if we are going to talk about our project…it’s likely going to be attached to a joke. That’s how a cytoskeleton lab seems to work it seems.

Despite the difficulties associated with being at the cutting edge in a lab utilizing classical experiments for almost our entire research, we get the job done, and we get the job done well.

Why?

Because we’ve learned how to smile.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have known that I was called to make people smile. Felicity literally means “happiness.” I was called to love the loveless. 

Therefore, I take great joy in bringing happy moments everywhere I go. My research is easy to tease, completely misunderstood, and probably the last thing one would expect to make someone smile. And yet, as I joke and let people tease me, I can see people smile. For a moment, I get to be a part of the healing process. It doesn’t matter if they are a scientist or not. STARD9 can still get an uncomfortable yet entertained smile…even a pity chuckle sometimes!

Just as our faked smiles turn to real ones in my lab, so too do those forced smirks and teasing comments.

Now, I know that most of my Dear Readers are not scientists. I also know that those of my readers who are scientists come from different lab backgrounds and have different vocations. However, that does not mean that we cannot take what we gain from our careers and give that back to the world.

My dad is a doctor, so he brings healing to our home.

My mother is a home maker, so she brings a hospital and loving presence everywhere she goes.

We are all called to love. We are all called to service. We are all called to make this world a better place. We all share this mission, but we all have a different way of accomplishing that mission.

Yes, we all want to forget about our work as soon as we get home.

But we shouldn’t.

Sure, we can forget the in’s and out’s of the day. Scientists can forget about the experiments they did that day. Real estate agents can forget about the leads they cannot get to until the morning. Mothers…well they can’t forget their children, but they can forget about the dirty diaper they changed that morning.

But we shouldn’t forget the good things we can take from our careers and what those things can do for others. We shouldn’t forget the details in the day that made us smile.

Because if we share those details with others, if we take the time to use our careers to better the world, then it stops being just a job. It becomes bigger than a label, than a means of income, than a stepping stone. 

Through love, our career becomes an absolute joy.

STARD9 is a tiny detail for anyone who studies motor proteins, cholesterol transport, and lysosomal membrane proteins. It is a tiny detail in our department. It is a tiny detail to anyone who does not know about my project and sees my blog posts (there are in fact some folks who went several months without knowing about STARD9).

But it’s my pleasure to make STARD9 known.

Talking about STARD9 in my Confirmation class made it possible for me to explain the value of Mary and the Saints. Joking about STARD9 made it possible for me to be a part of scientific conversations before I had the confidence to talk about the real research. Sharing the STARD9 story made it possible for numerous parents of children with rare diseases to smile.

I know that it’s weird to love my project so much.

The truth is: I do not love my project. 

I love what my project has done for the world. I love what my project has done for me.

Dear Reader, you have a special role in this world. Maybe you are searching for your place. Maybe you are frustrated by something that you experience at work but cannot seem to find outside of work. Maybe you have a skill that could help someone, but you never considered it because that skill set does not seem to apply to the “real world.”

You do not need to talk about your job.

You just need to allow it to become more than just a job.