Grad school really took a heavy toll on my mental health, but it didn’t take my love of the field. Diving into the literature on plant development was… Like, I would go for a walk outside and look at all the foliage and it was like I could see the code of the matrix. Auxin flowing along the edges, pooling to form leaves and lobes and then diving down into the interior to form vascular connections. CUC expressing in the primordia then hollowing out to define the boundaries. PINs relocalizing to reenforce the auxin flow. Ad/abaxial gene cohorts defining the leaf polarity and thereby orientation. It was like some wonderful second sight that showed me worlds that had once been hidden to me. It was this almost transcendental experience and I’ve never forgotten it even as I’ve moved on other fields.

I’ve never had quite the same experience since, but I still have found that, to me, learning what’s behind the mystery often makes it more magical, not less