Chapter 27 - I Didn’t Know Where I Was Going Until I Was Halfway There!

Summary

This is the story of how I circuitously journeyed into my life’s work. I began as a music major, then thought I would be a music therapist, then decided on psychology as the major because I was better at it. A graduate school sojourn in Michigan, a fateful conversation with John Hagen, nabbing a summer research position with Eleanor Maccoby and spending the summer trying to scare babies with a cymbal-clapping monkey. Chutzpah! Telling Eleanor I would help with the next phase of their study if she made me a graduate student. From scaring babies to giving them control over a scary toy to realizing I was studying the key factor in stress regulation to cortisol to a seminar offered by Seymour Levine and the discovery of the field of developmental psychoneuroendocrinology. I was in my fourth year of graduate school before I knew where I was going. Take heart students. You will figure it out if you keep asking questions.