I have decided that entrepreneurship is my last bastion of control I have for self-determination in selling a product and service I trust. My business: The Ariafya Universe is dedicated to healing diverse people with the intersection of science and mental health and wellness. I want this business because it all rests on me.
I am a former bench research scientist. I discovered a way to reduce cholesterol in the blood genetically through stem cells. I developed a way to keep heart function during congestive heart failure. I learned that the reason for type 2 diabetes by high fat, high sugar diet when on ages possibly has to do with signal transduction dysregulation from post-transcriptional levels. Lastly, I created a successful repeated test to determine blood pressure in genetically modified mice who were found to have decreased blood pressure. With all those studies and project all except for 1 were grossly depressing for me, costing me years of my life from stress.
In research, science is truly an enlightening and enthralling experience! It is one that unlocks those doors and secrets to an infinite natural wisdom and mechanism, which I truly found fascinating! Doing science for science sake... It was the system that decimated me. As evidenced by my research articles, it wasn't that I could not think, act, do science, because I made significant strides. It was the bureaucracy, the white male domination and machismo, politics and the fact I myself got seriously ill, which exacerbated my bipolar disorder--when I asked myself, after been accused of workplace hostilities inappropriate outbursts, but what I actually had was my boss said some racist things about me and I found out about it and when I confronted him--he lied, I asked what is the point? What is the point living life in destitution where I am questioned for my legitimate presence there. Then, when I was berated, ridiculed and demeaned in the laboratory from the Principal Investigators to the lab personnel because I was a Black Woman Scientist, I had no scientific answer!
No, in fact the inappropriate often ignorant, racist questions asked of me has ZERO to do with SCIENCE! Then hearing the confabulation of the heinous crime of scientific misconduct, drawing an ill conceived conclusion about a large swath of people through my low self-esteem bipolar answers without a shred of evidence is warped! At the time, I thought I was a personal attack and while I was naive, every bone in my body was set to prove these vile people called scientists wrong!
The greatest blow to my psyche and budding scientist career I have found is that I am a Black Woman asking intriguing scientific questions about the Universal natural order and forces, devoid of human definitions. What I bashed, crashed and smashed my head into disrupted the delicate, fragile imbalances that racism fabricated and distorted mired into scientific thought and theory about the reason for my existence--a Black Woman asking profound scientific questions, discovering novel scientific pathways as show repeatedly.
While insurmountable obstacles were set in my way, some I could not control--such as electricity dying during an experiment. And some others I could control--such as my response to ignorant and insensitive comments, that mentality kept me in the pursuit of science for science's sake for a long time. At the height of my progress in science, with the greatest support, in an excellent academic institution, my bipolar disorder literally knocked me down on the floor. I also saw the inconsistencies of the practice of science in the United States as irrelevant. Moreover, I found business people, venture capitalists and artisans more intrigued by my presentations than the scientist who destroyed all my being.
So now no more. I shall miss the free-loving viewpoint in science. The joy and thrill of solving a deeply puzzle or game like Tetris--graduate student fare. The transition to post-doctoral fellow who is told how worthless they are to the scientist, when better business practices could be implemented, such as marketing strategy for scientists. My strength is science is:
Taking complex health information and translating it into organic cosmic niches so that clients can choose to make their own informed health choices.
What is healthy eating? Why is it important? What is the importance of fitness? What does relaxation mean? What is the molecular genetic nature for that? Is it important or relevant? What would be the mechanisms? How come? How much of an impact does environment play on the molecular genetic factors? Is there an evolutionary reason for these factors?
So, I rather than lament my long lost life rather than on all my blogs, I decided to re-write that script. Become a CREATOR rather than a scientist. A scientist observes and waits for something to happen for discovery, then tests it. A CREATOR brings forth the created from scrapes and pieces of raw materials into a microcosm of an envisioned Universe. I make the rules, standards and spaces. I now know how biological systems work in concert in health and disease, so I think I can recreate a biological system of beauty in cyberspace and social media.
