Tag: lifestyle

2018 Reflections

On By CassieIn LifeLeave a comment
Et entendre ton rire s’envoler aussi haut
Que s’envolent les cris des oiseaux
Te raconter enfin qu’il faut aimer la vie
Et l’aimer même si le temps est assassin
Et emporte avec lui les rires des enfants
Et les mistrals gagnants
– Mistral Gagnant — Renaud

The song mentioned above discusses how quickly time goes by in life, and we also mature in the process. It’s a classic song, and I love Coeur de Pirate’s interpretation of the song as well. Going off of this, it’s crazy how 2019 is literally right around the corner. So many new things happened during the year, and the year definitely flew by.

2018 was a moment of a lot of ups and downs, but here’s a general list of highlights:

  1. Joining a food microbiology research lab and learned how to engineer yeast.
  2. Did a lot of food science.
  3. I participated in IFT for College Bowl and also won first place with my friends in IFT’s Food Science in Action video contest.
  4. I went to three professional conferences: CABBI Annual Retreat, IFT18, and SIMB
  5. I graduated college; which is still kind of crazy, since I honestly didn’t think I would make it.
  6. I got to know my food science classmates a lot more – and I’m really happy to be friends with several of them.
  7. My grandmother passed away towards the end of the year. It was very bittersweet, since I didn’t even get to tell her about my job – but I hope I’m making her proud.
  8. I landed my first full time job in food science, and moved down to Evansville, IN.

Some goals for 2019

  1. Be more confident and assertive in myself and what I do
  2. Explore the food science career as much as possible, and continue learning
  3. Be somewhat more outgoing
  4. Be happy and take care of myself

I’ll probably tweak this list along the way, but it’s a start for now!

 

 

The First Week: A Summary

On By CassieIn Food Science, LifeLeave a comment

Let it roll across the floor
Through the hall and out the door
To the fountain of perpetual mirth
Let it roll for all it’s worth

– Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll) — George Harrison

Well guys… I did it! I officially survived my first week of work! I won’t go into too much detail about everything, but I’ll give my overall impressions of how things went.

The night before I started work, I was sort of restless. This is my first official job, and I was super excited, but also nervous at the same time; as I didn’t know what to expect. My goal was to make sure that I made a decent impression amongst my new co-workers and the other new hires who would be working in the same department as me (We all have different supervisors).

I woke up super early… maybe around 6:00 AM sharp. After picking up my security badge and meeting the other new hires, I met with my manager and she showed me around the office space and introduced me to her team. Everyone is super nice, and they’re some of the brightest food scientists out there; so it’s such an amazing opportunity to work with them! Throughout the rest of the week, I’ve been attending trainings, and meeting everyone else in the R&D department (e.g. Food engineers, regulatory, quality control, etc.); I even had the opportunity to meet with some of the people who have a pretty high position within the company — which was really cool!

I hope I can contribute something worthwhile to the company — and while I don’t know much about product development, I will be setting new goals in the new year. So I’m looking forward to further advancing my current knowledge and continue growing as a potential food scientist! I honestly don’t think I’ve been this excited about going to work since leaving my food microbiology professor’s lab from the summer. I definitely am going to try to make the most of my time while I’m here, and I don’t know what’s going to happen next: but I’m looking forward to the challenge!

 

Impressions

On By CassieIn LifeLeave a comment

Tonight, I’m gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world I’ll turn it inside out, yeah
And floating around in ecstasy
So don’t stop me now don’t stop me
‘Cause I’m having a good time, having a good time

– Don’t Stop Me Now — Queen [Freddie Mercury]

Strangely enough, I just set this song as my alarm for tomorrow morning — which is the day that I’ll be starting my first day of work! I moved down to Evansville this past Saturday and have been spending the past week getting acclimated with my new surroundings. I definitely want to give a huge shout-out to my parents — as they helped me move my stuff from Illinois down to Indiana. I miss my friends and family a ton, but I hope I can make them proud down here!

One of the newest things that I’ve had to do is drive on a regular basis. I’ll be honest: Driving is pretty intimidating – since a car can pretty much kill people or destroy other stuff if you’re not careful . Back home, I usually go with public transportation, or walk to wherever I need to go. This time is a bit different. I have to take an expressway to get to my new work location. Which means I have to start getting used to driving a car again. I still get nervous whenever I drive, and I’ve been honked at a few times here and there (For valid reasons of course — e.g. me not checking properly before switching lanes, being hesitant, etc.) , but I’m slowly getting better, and eventually I’ll feel much more confident and safer driving moving forward (To all of the people that have honked me this past week, sorry about that!).

Evansville by itself is pretty small, and the weather has been unusually warm lately for the past few days. I’m definitely nervous and excited for tomorrow — so hopefully I make a good first impression!

Welcome – A New Chapter and First Post

On By CassieIn Food Science, Life2 Comments

It’s time to spread our wings and fly
Don’t let another day go by my love
It’ll be just like starting over
Starting over

– (Just Like) Starting Over — John Lennon

Hello, world!

Welcome to my food science/personal blog! I’ve actually had several WordPress blogs in the past (and still have a couple!) – but for some reason, I’ve never been able to do a very good job maintaining them. My goal for this particular blog is to use it as a platform to document my progression in my professional career, as well as talk about other random stuff that happens in life. So in a way, it’s sort of like starting over towards something new haha!

To introduce myself: My name is Cassie — I’m 22 years old (as I write this particular post) from the United States! I recently graduated from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and majored in Food Science and Human Nutrition, with my concentration in food science. In a few weeks, I will be moving out to Evansville, Indiana to embark my first full-time role in the food industry; which to be honest, is both an intimidating yet exciting moment in my life. I’ll talk about this stuff in detail later, so I’ll just leave things here for the time being!

FYI: I’m also a huge fan of classic rock music, so you might see some song lyrics scattered throughout this blog!

All the best,

Cassie