I never expected to be camping on an ice shelf in Antarctica, setting up weather stations in Pakistan, counting rare beetles by torchlight in Cromwell, or releasing balloons that make it to the stratosphere from Lauder. I was not a scholarly type at school, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I ended up studying the world around us. The intellectual challenges of analysis, programming, and lab work have been enjoyable and rewarding, and are just some of the aspects of my science journey that have made me love it more than I could ever imagine.