270 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements It is with great joy and relief that I write this section for it signifies that this PhD journey is complete. It began rather untraditionally, I think. At the end of May 2017, nearly at the end of my master’s internship, I sat in Sanquin’s cafeteria fiddling with my lunch and pondering my future. Out of the blue, a man named Mart approached me. I recognized him for I had interviewed him as one of my interviewee respondents. “How would you like a job here?” Dumbfounded, I nodded. (Mart remembers that I jumped up and hugged him.) And so began the journey. Originally meant to be a post-doc, we joked that it would be a “pre-doc” and indeed, two years later, I was formally recognized as a PhD student and given a two-year extension to finish it. I stepped into the world of blood banking and Transfusion Medicine and was amazed. Furthermore, I came to love Sanquin, its employees, its history and its potential as I listened to countless people tell me their experiences and wishes for the organization. Amidst the years of researching, learning, traveling, and presentations, significant, personal milestones happened: I got married in 2018, I had our first child in 2020 during the pandemic, and I was pregnant with our second child at the end of my PhD contract in February 2022. Someone once advised me to keep my professional and personal lives separate, but I disagree because it was in the melding of the two that resulted in maturity that made me a much better human and researcher. There are specific people reading this who have helped me through the journey, and I want to acknowledge you here. To Mart, the man who gave me a job on that sunny day years ago. You’ve single-handedly been my supervisor for most of this journey, and I thank you for your patience, trust, help, and food outings/gatherings. Hans Z, it has been an unexpected pleasure to have deep conversations with you on topics outside of science. Thank you for being willing to listen to me and even change your mind occasionally.
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