A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Women

I read Lindy’s memoir at a time when I needed it most. This is a story of a women who overcame trauma and understood her depression. She was dedicated and motivated in a way that I will never understand. Lindy has given me the motivation in my own life to know I can do more even when life seems to be pushing against me.

Lindy was a young girl when she experienced her first trauma, this trauma continued into adulthood when her parents didn’t acknowledge or validate her experiences. She then had to grow up very quickly and learn how to be a women in science. As a women who came from science myself, I can fully understand her struggle. As a women in general, I can also understand her pain.

“How do you explain your ability to transcend that childhood, to have a loving family of your own, to act professionally at the highest levels, and to be cheerful and present and steady? I don’t understand how some people are crushed by experiences like yours, and others survive, and are able to keep loving others, and function in the world” Astronomy, he answered. Looking out and beyond the Earth into something so great and vast in time and the distance. Seeing there is more in than the emotions we carry in the moment of life we are in. “As soon as I remembered that,” he said, “I felt a strong and optimistic and motivated to be a part of that exploration. There’s so much more than just us.”

For me, I wish it was as simple as looking at the stars to understand that my feelings exists so far outside of what I experience. But for Lindy, this held true and helped her move forward. Lindy was the queen of knowing what she needs and doing exactly that… despite it being against the norm or what was expected of her. These bold actions gave her all the experience she needed to excel in science. Lindy’s commitment to feminism and a positive teaching environment is what makes her so memorable to me. She never wavered from her views and in turn was able to make the lives of her students and coworkers more positive.

Lindy’s methods on asking questions to guide a classroom and grading metrics are ones that can be used in every day life. These are the aspects of the book that I intend to carry with me into the workforce. I believe this book will be an invaluable tool for me as I try to understand where I’m going in my “career” and how I want to discuss with a group or lead people.

Lindy’s memoir came to me at a time when I feel like I’m failing. I quit my job about three months ago and have struggled to get interviews and keep interviews since then. Post my most recent job, my confidence has faltered, I feel somewhat inadequate in the workforce and have struggled to find my confidence. Within this time period I have also experienced a great loss from cancer. Lindy also battled cancer and she shared many characteristics with the woman I lost. Reading this book now has allowed me to find hope in some of the darkest places and realize that despite making a stereotypical wrong decision, it can be right for you in the end.

While Lindy and I experienced different versions of struggling with mental health, we both struggled and persevered. Every day I remind myself that so many women have done it before me. Both Cheryl and Lindy paved the path for me to follow.

I will forever appreciate the love that Cheryl gave to me and I will think of Lindy’s book throughout my entire life and career.

“There is great beauty in the depth of knowledge humans have collected. I wish with all my heart that every person could, in at least one discipline, pursue and come to know through a long path traveled all that has been discovered, right to the edge of human understanding. Learning the knowledge landscape up to its outer limits bestows a perspective on what it means to be civilized, to know something in its entirety, to viscerally appreciate what it is to be an expert. This universe of knowledge is as complex, voluminous, and multidimensional as is our real universe, but the knowledge is less visible, is, in fact, largely invisible, until you search hard.”

Thank you both,

Jessica