Thank you Robbie, you express my thoughts much better than I ever could.

As for your debate, I think it just depends on the person. You personally seem to like putting it all on the line, whereas I don't enjoy that. I certainly hope you succeed, especially doing what you love doing, but that's way to much risk for me... and I also hate being in places where I don't know anyone.

I guess I prefer pragmatism at this point over idealism, which is a bit of a switch. I'm happy now with less grand ambitions, and I think I improve the happiness of others around me more as well. While research is still awesome, because discovering new knowledge is awesome, the people that really love it and enjoy it are better fit to do it than I am. Same with people that want to be president or whatever, I don't thrive in that sort of competitive environment. Just depends on what makes you happy. That's really the impoortant thing. And if you're not happy, change things until you are.