I had grand plans for getting back into blogging in 2022 “after I get settled into Gainesville.” But… feeling settled into our new home and my new role as an assistant professor has taken a lot longer than I expected. I can really only describe 2023 as my year of learning how to drink from the fire hose that is pre-tenure life. In 2022 I hired 1 lab member, and in 2023 I’ve hired and on-boarded 5 more. At the end of our second full field season my team is a lot more independent, and it’s been fun to watch their skills and confidence grow.
This time of transition has left me feeling more energized and ready to jump back into some academic pursuits that are meaningful for me. In fall, that’s included conference travel and joining more certified crop advisor (CCA events) as both a speaker and a participant. This winter I’m getting back into writing of all types! I’ve spent a lot of 2023 learning more about mentoring new writers and developing my editing and feedback skills. It’s been incredibly rewarding, but has taken time from own writing. I’ve also fallen into the trap of thinking I “shouldn’t” work on blogging or newsletters since I have “more important writing” that I should get done first– that mindset has both taken a toll on my overall joy/ job satisfaction and made my scientific writing process more difficult. Writing gets easier when I do it more, and all writing counts for me.
I have a few goals for me re-entry into casual blogging: (1) remain disconnected from blog performance metrics, (2) aim for done-not-perfect post quality, and (3) take breaks when it feels more stressful than fun. That’s probably going to shift my topics further away from tutorials, which are honestly more work and image formatting than I find rewarding, and into more commentaries. I’m excited to share resources I’ve found helpful, tell readers a bit about my projects at work, and maybe revisit some old post themes (especially the vocab words and data visualization musings).
Most of my writing in 2023 has gone towards grant proposals or internal reports, so I don’t have much I can share here from the last year. But, I do want to highlight one post I got to write with colleagues for the Levy County Extension Blog: A case study in reducing nutrient inputs without reducing grain corn yield. It shares some legacy data from an emeritus colleague, Dr. Hochmuth, that we’ve been working to organize and share with farmers. He’s also shared some peanut potassium trial data, which has been a great opportunity for some of my lab members to build their data analysis and visualization skills.
I look forward to sharing more updates in the coming months– thanks for reading!
Spatially Challenged 