Many people have heard of the traditional method of obtaining permanent residence in the United States. From a somewhat simplistic standpoint, this is viewed as being ‘sponsored for a Green Card.’ During that process, a sponsoring employer files paperwork  with the Department of Labor and, after that is certified, files a further application to USCIS. However, in many instances, foreign born scientists and researchers find themselves in a situation whereby their employer is not in a position to sponsor them in such a manner.

Over the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day, I found myself in San Francisco for the first time. While there are (so I’ve heard) a multitude of Irish bars and ex-pats in the city to be able to fully immerse oneself in the activities of a traditional celebration, this was not the reason I found myself there. Rather, I was in town to attend and present at the 10th Annual Meeting of the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA).

The headline isn’t really news I suppose. In all aspects of our life, the better prepared you are, the easier (in general) things are to work through and accomplish. Although I was a little disappointed that when I became a new parent a few years ago that there was no instruction booklet. Despite that, I reckon we’ve managed okay.

While I was never a maths whizz, I used to do okay with numbers. I didn’t get to use a calculator until who knows when in school (meaning that I used my brain for day to day problems), I even knew long division, and was able to knock out pretty much all my friends and family’s telephone numbers instantly. Now, I use my smart phone to look up people’s numbers (I honestly don’t remember more than a handful), long division is a thing of the past, and I pull out a calculator for tasks that I really don’t need it for.

Eleven years ago, when I was contemplating my return to the United States from my home country of Ireland on a J-1 Visa, I don’t think blogging existed (and if it did, I certainly wasn’t aware of it).