This picture is from 1997.  An old friend of mine from a previous job sent me several pictures for a good laugh.  I think it’s hilarious that I’m wearing a jaunty neck scarf and crisp white shirt with jeans and tennis shoes.

The job was my first job in pharmaceuticals and led to my current career path. As I looked over the other faces in the photo, I had so many memories.  A lot of these people became good friends and I really enjoyed working with them.  It also reminded me of how different I am now, and how sometimes I wish I could go back in time and be nicer to people.

Then I realized that I can’t look back and regret, I can only move forward and be a better person.  I also look back on the work I did and, while some of it seemed menial at the time, it has really helped me understand the pharma industry better.  Amy and I were just commenting how, when we tested raw materials, we just printed the USP and went for it- had to learn by doing in many cases.  I learned about lots of actives and excipients through testing them, so I know a lot about their properties.  Working on cleaning validation was boring from a testing perspective, but I learned a ton about equipment- liquids, blending, packaging- because I had to swab all of it up close.  I also was not “stuck” in the lab; doing CV meant going out into production nearly every day and learning about the equipment and the people who worked in production.  I developed a very strong respect for people working in production; they told me things about the products that even the product developers didn’t know.  They were hard workers with a lot of knowledge and I have never forgotten that.

I was trying to sum up this post, but realized it’s just blathering and nostalgia.  Sorry to bore you.  Back to your regularly scheduled programming.