Revisiting the academic in me

The decision to start blogging was not hard. Coming up with a blog name and a blogger identity, however, was. When I think of myself (and more specifically of the current stage in my life), I clearly see a grad student. I picture someone who has yet to learn the many conventions in academia, who has yet to nurture independence, and who is far from ready to face the ugly reality of the evil "professor world".

Easy, you'd think. Grad student, it is. But... I'm hoping to stay around for longer than just a couple of months and so any name reflecting the current stage in my career wouldn't be the best choice. Red cross.

If I can't describe myself as a grad student, then what am I?

*identity crisis*

A researcher? An academic? A scientist?

Yes and no to all of them. Yes, I spend my days doing research (among others); yes, I work in academia, and perhaps, if you will, in science as well (I do hold a science degree after all). But no, this of course doesn't automatically render me a researcher, an academic, a scientist. I do not run a lab, I do not attend faculty meetings, I do not teach, and those few committees I'm involved in -- purely voluntary. As others have said before: although I may be learning the science, may be gaining research experience, and may be developing some basic academic skills, it may not be until later that I become a "true" academic (if at all).

And yet, due to the lack of a better term, I called myself an academic. Only one day down the road I start second guessing that decision. I think I may already want to qualify my name.

~Observant Academic-to-be