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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Difference

Every single day, I wonder about how my life would turn out if I went into retail.

I read Drugmonkey's blog regularly, and I enjoy most of his posts. I read Jim Plagakis just as much, and I enjoy most of his posts. I read Angry and Angriest and Pharmacy Chick and Pharmacy Mike and I Want To Be A Pharmacist and around twenty other pharmacy blogs irregularly, but I don't think I've ever read a pharmacy blog about the experience of some pharmacist in any other position other than retail.

Of course, I understand why, retail is frustrating. It's infuriating . John Q. Public is either an asshole or ignorant, and it's hard to excuse either of those categories.

Fortunately for me, I got out of the retail business, at least temporarily. I now do research with Aspergillus fumigatus and the allergic response. I've done this for a few weeks now, and I can tell you that it is much better than retail. However, I'm a mere first-time research assistant so I get the shaft. A lot.

I spent three hours the other day washing mice containers. They do not smell good. They are not even remotely clean. They need scrubbing by hand. It takes effort.

Another day I spent four hours sitting on my ass doing nothing. I stared at the wall. I was waiting for the proteinases to do their job to help purify our DNA sample. It's literally a "hurry up and wait" type of business.

So far though, if asked if I would do the same thing again, if I would leave retail and go to research, I would. In both jobs I worked with smart people who care about what they are doing, and both jobs have their downfalls. However, research doesn't have the general public. I never have to explain to a woman who is hard of hearing that she needs to see her doctor because she's out of refills.

It's nice. I like it, so at the end of the day, when I think about how my life would be if I went into retail, I look at my past experiences and my current ones and the scales are tipped disproportionately toward research. Despite it's boring moments, there are absolutely zero frustrating encounters with the general public, and I love that.