I’m a big kid now!
So the trip to Florida for my first big national meeting was a success!
The poster session went really well – everyone was really nice and receptive to the ideas, and most everyone said something like ‘well done’ or ‘good job’ after I’d walked them through the data – it felt really comfortable, which is a first for me, I’m usually really awkward talking about my work, esp with people who know so much more than I do about the field… but it was good, and generated some good discussion/ideas to think about.
And I got to meet some great people – my boss’s old boss (like my ‘grandfather’ in the science world 
), several of his old students (which was great, cause we talk about them all the time and I’d never met them – and they were awesome!), other famous people in the world of my research… so a good trip altogether… I’m still glad it’s over, as it was kinda stressful and exhausting (that’s a lot of lectures to attend all day starting at 8am) – but it was definitely worth it, and I’m kinda excited about spending some time this summer looking at post-docs and other opportunities for post-PhD work!
Awesome.