The Deep Breath Before the Plunge: Spring–Summer 2019

After two professional basketball seasons — one in Canada, one in Germany — I made one of the stranger pivots of my life: I hung up my sneakers and enrolled in a PhD program in Bioinformatics at UC San Diego.

The spring and summer of 2019 were a liminal space. I wasn’t a basketball player anymore, but I wasn’t really a scientist yet either. I was just… breathing, before the plunge.

Stepping Back from Basketball

The decision wasn’t dramatic. I loved the game, but I’d also loved something else longer and more quietly — understanding how life works at a molecular level. The PhD had been a question mark hovering in the background since senior year at UCSD. After Germany, it became an answer.

Friends and Family

That spring was about reconnecting. Two years of professional basketball had taken me to Canada, Germany, back to San Diego, and around and around. I spent that time with family, with old friends, and with myself — trying to be present in a way that the grind of professional sports makes difficult.

Getting Ready

I read a lot. I coded a little. I ran through my undergraduate notes. I tried to remember what it felt like to be a student — curious, humble, genuinely uncertain about things.

Those feelings came back quickly once fall arrived.

Up next: 2019 — Relearning how to learn →