I was in love and thought 'I could work with cats all day!' I finished my research project for a Master's Degree, got married, and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Cameron started graduate school (he likes bench research!). Then my fiance, Cameron, got me a 6-month-old kitten. I thought about teaching my dad had been an educator, but I wasn't sure I wanted to be around kids all day. So there I was in Corvallis, Oregon, struggling with what I was going to do with my life. Plus writing grants wasn't my kind of writing!
It was too solitary and didn't seem applicable to real life. I found that 'bench research' wasn't for me, either.
I worked in a lab at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln as an undergrad, then went to Oregon State University to work on a PhD in Genetics. In college, I found I didn't like the culture in my pre-med classes, so I went into genetics research.
I would put out some milk if I saw a cat in the neighborhood and my mom would say 'don't feed them or they'll keep coming back.' Obviously, she didn't understand that was my plan! But my early goals were to be a neurosurgeon or a writer.