This month we speak to Caroline Golden, Systems and Translational Neuroscience Team Lead at Compass …
I am a part of the COMPASS team helping to … conduct research in the field of psychedelics
The best place I’ve ever visited is … Japan! For so many reasons: the culture (they’re the nicest, such polite people), the outdoors (the Nakasendo trail), the art and architecture (Naoshima), the history (Kyoto, Nara), the largest and most diverse urban metropolis that is Tokyo, the engineering (the average delay of the Shinkansen is 1.1min – and that’s including natural disasters) and the food (far too many to mention …)
An unusual fact about me is … I’m not naturally flexible. All the mobility and flexibility that I have is trained as an adult. While yes I’ve always been sporty, the competitive sport I grew up playing involved being fast, reactive, and having power and endurance – not things that are conducive to high hip mobility or hamstring flexibility! Yet more often than not, when people see the end result of consistent work over time (eg doing the splits beyond 180 degrees), the assumption is that I can just naturally do that …
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is … to do whatever it is that you love and to work hard at it. This career advice from my parents has led me to consistently thoroughly enjoy the work that I do and get great fulfilment and satisfaction from it. My brothers and I all received that same advice growing up: as adults, we work in different professions and we all feel the same way about our careers. It gives the freedom and work ethic to have a fulfilling career. It still blows my mind how rare that is for people