The year is 2001 and I sit with S, my co-worker at Philips, at the airport in Amsterdam waiting for our flight to San Diego where we will attend an optical conference. S asks me what I would really like to do, if it was all up to me. I answer with a smile: "I would give up my job, fly to South America and bike around for a year or so." S, not knowing that I had given up my job a week before, looks up and smiles back at me: "Jeh, that would be great." We sit again down and the question is on the table again. What to do with my life. This time I am less certain. What to do? I love this traveling, this living on the road, this discovering of the world. I can go for 2 weeks without a shower, I can sleep where ever, I can turn every penny before spending it.
There is however that other side of me. And S, being an Associate Research Professor in polarizing optics at the Arizona University, amateur astronomist and classical violin player is part of that one. That side of me which wants to be intellectual challenged, loves the company stress, the interaction with co-workers, to work on some challenging project for weeks, to create a product. I can listen for an afternoon to classical music, an evening to a practice session of a string quartet (I did got bored star gazing). I love good (expensive) cheese with some wine, theater, ballet, city life, friends over for dinner, being at home. 
How to combine these 2 sides? Is there a way I can travel and be a physicist? Is there a way to do both? I have no clue how to do it, should I even strive for it? From time to time it can stresses me out a little. 
Maybe my destiny is to look for it, to keep searching for the perfect life, to keep learning from the world. 
Its good that for now I can just push it to the side and submerge myself more into nature. That always helps. Because the world...I just love it... 
Iris (Tucson, 37170 miles)
