Sunday, October 20, 2013

This one's for all my science boos out there.

One thing that I've learned through my life is that happiness is fleeting. Being in the science world, there are a few rare moments of happiness. You get a great result, you discover something new, some experiment tells you something you weren't expecting but it turns out that it's actually cooler than what you were originally studying... there are so many "moments" of happiness that you can achieve with science. However, those moments are over so quickly, before you are coming up with new experiments, new hypotheses, and the work that comes with all these new things from our "happy moments". Quite frankly, it gets exhausting rather quickly. And you never know when one of those happy moments will strike... whether it's tomorrow or 5 months from now. Frustrating. So. Frustrating.

Even when not doing experiments, writing journal articles to get published or a thesis/dissertation to get your MS/PhD... there is just an overall tone of frustration. Everything has to be PERFECT. You have to finish you research and publish it before competitors do, otherwise all that work is for nothing. Your figures have to grab the attention of the reviewer, of the reader. Making science interesting can be hard. 

We scientists have so much to complain about. We sit in labs all day, running experiments, writing, reading, teaching. Sometimes these labs are really nice, sometimes they feel like dungeons. We complain about a bad day of data collection, about how our students in recitation don't listen to us when we are giving them what they need to know for the quiz they are about to take, about how our chemistry doesn't work... we complain pretty much everything. Misery loves company, and the company our misery keeps is each other.

... However, there is a way to battle this "science syndrome" though. 

1) Go in every day trying to accomplish something. Even if the main thing you accomplish is cleaning your desk and making a workspace again, you did it. Use that as momentum for the next day. If you weren't able to repeat an experiment like you hoped, just get up the next day and try to remember that it is a NEW day. You can do it.

2) Try to think of happiness as a state of mind, instead of trying to find it in people, places or things. I know that I like to buy things to make me happy: shoes, clothing, fro-yo, sushi, etc. But as soon as the newness wears off, or it's gone, the happiness associated with it is gone. You can have memories of places you traveled, and the happiness you had when you were there experiencing the place, but it begins to fade the longer you are away. So why put a tag on happiness? Why not just try to be happy, with whatever you're doing, with whomever you are with, wherever you are. Just enjoy each and every moment you can. People say that only you can make yourself unhappy; it also goes the other way as well, only you can make yourself happy. So make yourself happy.

... that's all I have for now to combat frustrating times... but I'm living life one day at a time, trying to figure it out. That counts for something, right?

To all my friends who are going through qualifiers/defenses coming up: keep your head up, and keep plugging away. We will get stressed. We will get frustrated. We will be exhausted by the end. But we WILL get through this together. Instead of complaining about all the bad things that are upon us, let's build each other up to get ourselves through it. 

This definitely has a theme in mind, but even if you are not a science person, or going through what I am, you can definitely try to apply this to your own lifestyle. It works for most things, just substitute some things here and there. You'll be okay... we'll all be okay. :)

Until later. Qualifying exam looms near... only 1 month and 1 day away. Pray to the chemistry gods for me, everyone. It's gonna be one hell of a month.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Overall, I just want to be successful.

With the weather changing, and the temperature dropping, we come upon the season of Pumpkin Spice Lattes, sweaters, boots, fires, hot chocolate, and blankets. I LOVE FALL. But there is something about fall that makes me want to forget about work, and just porch sit like crazy with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Which is not beneficial to my production at school and getting ready for my third year talk... which is coming up in a month and a half. Yikes.

However, for our Life After Graduate School course, we took a tour of Givudan Flavors, just about 10 miles down the road from UC. Besides having a wonderful facility, and just being super cool in general, it reminded me that a job like that is the end game that I should be working toward with my work here in graduate school. For now, yes, the dissertation, papers, talks, etc. are all important (especially to continue on to get those things done), but that's not what I'm spending my entire 5 years trying to do. After my degree is done, I most likely won't ever look after this again. Which is slightly depressing, but encouraging at the same time.

But that tour helped to remind me what potential long-term goals I have for myself, and that I need to continue to work hard to get there. Talk about getting the push I needed to get motivated again. I want to get out of here with my PhD. That is the short term goal.

Long term, I want to be successful. In science. In relationships. In life, in general. And I think a lot of that comes with grad school, and making sure that I finish up strong. I want to make my life better, more comfortable. There a lot of things I want to accomplish, and I don't know everything yet I want to accomplish, but I need to get off my butt and get some work done.

Take a few minutes, and write down your goals that you want to accomplish. They could be for tomorrow, next month, next year, or long term goals. Once those goals are down, think about how you can accomplish those goals. Reward yourself once you reach your goals. Don't beat yourself up too much if you don't reach your goals; just make yourself work harder to reach the next one.

What is the main success that you want to accomplish in your lifetime?