From a CEU '98er: 9 years and 5 research projects later

Since my first research experience in 1996 working in low-energy nuclear structure, the results of which were presented at the original DNP CEU poster session in Santa Fe in 1998, subsequent projects led me to weave my way through various energies and collision systems in nuclear and particle physics. Through the course of the broad exposure to research that I have been fortunate enough to experience, I have found a niche for myself in the study of nucleon spin structure. I originally got involved in the field in 1998-99 through my undergraduate senior project on studies for polarizing the proton beam at HERA in Hamburg, Germany. After a foray into particle physics followed by an unanticipated diversion from research, teaching music and English abroad, fate--and some kind individuals--would give me the opportunity to return both to physics and specifically to nucleon structure in 2001 as part of the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Six years into my research on proton spin structure as a member of the PHENIX Collaboration, I will discuss where I am today and the non-linear path that brought me here.