The interviewer on Thursday told me during the course of the interview that it's obvious to her I'll go on to grad school of some variety, I'm clearly too curious and intelligent to want to be a technician all my life...

Coming from a young 30-something PhD who holds a junior fellowship at UCSD, that's quite a compliment.

I've spent the past few years of my life being told in various ways that I'm just not cut out for academia, that I'm not motivated enough, or intellectual enough. Maybe it's time to stop listening to the naysayers and just follow what I want to do.