April thrills and chills

April is a busy time for academics. Classes are wrapping up and that long-awaited summer of research opens up before you like a vast ocean, full of opportunity. Some students are finishing up and moving on with their studies or careers, others are joining your research team for the first time. As a professor, you wrap up a year spent in the classroom, imparting knowledge of your discipline to others, in the hopes that at least some useful nuggets stick! It is certainly a time of year that is thrilling. There are also April chills, however...

April is the time of year when major funding announcements are typically made, and when some academics will breathe a sigh of relief at a successful funding venture, while others will look upon a rejection email with dismay. Rejection is a difficult pill to swallow, and I'm not sure if it ever gets easier. This week I received two rejections on major grants, grants that took I, and others, many hours, days, weeks, to prepare. It sucks, but it is the path we follow. If you don't try, you don't receive. You take the wins with the losses and keep moving forward. As Stephen Hawking wisely said "Look up at the stars, not down at your feet". So we keep moving on, looking upwards!