So, some of you may know that I had the experience of a lifetime working in Antarctica. What I share in this post is that, actually, I almost never made it to the ice for a very stupid reason! I almost missed my chance of going to Antarctica for my science mission.

I was put on the list to go to ice as a backup, initially. That is because when you’re just getting started if you are really useful you might be a backup and then if you’re really critical, you might actually get to go.

As for the timeline of things, if your deployment to the ice is going to start in October or November, you would have to get put on a list by March or April at the latest to start the process. Specifically, you have to “PQ” or physically qualify to be deployed. Without PQ, you cannot go. 

To PQ for going to Antarctica, you must go through many health examinations, doctor visits, get X-rays done, etc. All of this usually takes months to complete. I was excited to get started and consulted a senior person (postdoc) in my group who had already been to the ice.

He proceeded to tell me straight-up “Don’t even bother PQ-ing because you’re just a backup and you’re never going to go. PQ is a long process so just save yourself the trouble.”

Imagine my disappointment! Here I was being happy and excited about being a backup for the Antarctic Mission and this guy burst my bubble and gives me this disappointing news. I was happy, so excited to even just be backup but he was saying that there was no chance, no point at all.

So, I almost gave up and thought to myself there is no point in PQ-ing. It was indeed a tedious process to PQ. I felt totally bummed and mentioned to one of the professors in the team (Jim Beatty) that I had been told to not even PQ.

Dr. Beatty (thank you!!) told me that, technically, even backups should PQ. I did not mention to him how I had been really discouraged and decided that, oh well, I guess, technically, a backup should PQ, with zero hope of ever going to the ice by that point.

I was also discouraged because nobody really encouraged me or told me that it was possible that I might go. The assumption was that I was not going. Dr. Beatty told me the rule, at least, thank goodness. But even my Ph.D. advisor had never been to the ice, so we really did not know nor have too many examples.

Despite the discouragement and misguidance by the person who had gone to the ice, I completed the PQ process based on no hope and actually went through with it even though I believed that I could never go. There was only ever a chance of going as I was a backup and he made it sound like that chance was basically zero. However, I kept working on my projects for the mission including working on hardware specific to the mission, as well as battling with the PQ process which was long and hard in its own right.

Long story short, I turned out to be critical for the mission and the hardware that I worked on was actually mission-critical and I had to go to the ice for the mission to take place.

By the time I deployed, I had made a lot of progress in my work and I was no longer a backup, I was critical to the mission. On the ice, I even served as one of the mission commanders and actually had one of the longest deployments of all people in the team.

So just imagine this: I almost didn’t even PQ which is a must for going to Antarctica!

And then, I ended up playing such an important role. The science mission was successful because of the projects that I worked on. Due to the hardware I worked on, our lifetime was increased by four times! It is what made the mission most successful and we wrote papers about it and everything was a huge success!

I got this medal! And to think that I almost didn’t even start my PQ process for going to Antarctica due to discouraging people!

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A post shared by Oindree Banerjee (@oindreebee)

How stupid would that be? Don’t be stupid, don’t listen to people! Go with your gut and what feels right.