Growing up in Sweden, I realized that I did not like cold weather. My mother used to read me a book about a penguin that had the same problem. One day he decided he had had enough, so he set sail towards the tropical Pacific in a bathtub. I did the same thing, although I did not use a bathtub. I thought life would be much more pleasant in Hawaii. I was right.

To secure my status as a subtropical resident for several years, I decided to pursue a PhD in oceanography at the University of Hawaii. Science, combined with some fun under the sun, seemed like an excellent idea. To limit the number of days spent in cold weather, I was drawn to the study of coral reefs; more precisely, the study of the effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on this ecosystem. Sunny skies, warm waters, beautiful scenery and the most costly experiment mankind has ever undertaken: burn all fossil fuels and just sit back and watch. Could life get any better than this?

But recently it struck me that the day will soon come when I might see an end to both an initially endless PhD and the coral reefs as we know them, leaving me the question of what to do next. I have great hopes of presenting you with the answer to that before the end of the year. Although life is still very pleasant in Hawaii, I am getting the bathtub ready. The quest for a new destination has begun.