Nearly three months have flown by since I started my internship with Dr. Jenna Gibbs at McGill University as a UWaterloo Master’s student, sponsored by the Mitacs Accelerate program. Since it’s my third and final post, this would be the best time for me to thank Cansbridge for the privilege of being able to work for a different supervisor over the summer and broaden my academic horizons.
If you missed my first blog post where I — in retrospect — talk about myself and subsequently complain a lot (forgive me, I was feeling sort of down that month), click on this link. If you missed my second blog post where I discuss things I’ve learned after transferring to a new lab, six years after working for the same professor (featuring: pathetic eyelash story and an adorable donut shop), check it out here.
Two things I learned about myself.
(1) My favourite thing in the entire world is making unusual shapes with my body! In a COVID-less world, I’d be doing similar tricks in the air or on the ice. Now, after a year and a half of ground training in my tiny bedroom, I am absolutely dying to be back in the aerial studio or in the arena. I’ve been stretching and conditioning 6–7 days/week in my tiny bedroom in a valiant attempt to make sure I’m still in aerial/skating shape by the time it’s safe for indoor sports to happen again.
I dabbled in these sports since high school, and had just gotten into performing, competing, and teaching before the pandemic shut everything down. I think I’ve twisted the topic of every blog post thus far into something where I can write about how much I love figure skating and aerials, so let’s just keep the streak going.
In summer ’19, my aerial studio brought our rig to Schlegel Villages, a local retirement home. We performed in the courtyard, where residents invited their loved ones for a free outdoor aerial performance, or peeked out their bedroom windows to watch. This was one of the highlights of my time in Waterloo — it was truly such a joy to bring together my worlds of aerial performance and well-being for older adults.
As for skating? To be honest, I don’t talk much about skating nowadays because I haven’t been able to skate for so long with the pandemic, and that makes me sad. :( I fell in love with the elegant artistry and technicality of the sport when I was 12 (2010 Olympics) and haven’t fallen out of love with the sport since then. But, this September, I’ll be back on the ice for both practicing and teaching, yay!
(2) Self-care is paramount! Self-care can look different for different people. For some, it might be a movie every Sunday evening or daily prayers. Over the summer, I journalled every morning, tried to get into visualization (this one is really hard for me!), listened to different types of music, organized relaxing Zoom calls with my friends, and took warm baths. I also loved going for walks and visiting new tea/dessert shops in my area.
If you’re in need of a fun date idea! If there are high tea shops in your neighbourhood, they might be doing takeout/delivery. We got this full set for two with five savouries, two scones, and four sweets per person for a very reasonable price and all the foods were light, fresh, and delicious. I’m such a big fan of little croissants, wraps, quiche, pinwheel sandwiches, and things like that. We actually plan to order a high tea set every week for a month to fill out our stamp cards and win a free lunch. I love high tea so much, and who knew it could be enjoyed from the comfort of your own home? Days like these bring me so much joy.
I also love getting takeout from my favourite local restaurants and cafes. This was from Bhima’s Warung, an extraordinary Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Thai restaurant just a block from my house. I had the laksa bhima, which featured grilled tiger shrimp and fish, tempura sea scallop, and mussels in a spicy coconut, lemongrass, kunyit daun jeruk, served with jasmine rice.
On a similar note — in late July, I challenged myself to read a little every day. This was not easy for me because I sometimes have the tendency to think of reading, among other recreational activities, as meaningless. Why dedicate time to reading a book when I could be reading more papers? Or analyzing more transcripts? But if my part-time job working for a wellness advocate has taught me anything, it’s that quiet time (like reading!) can have tremendous emotional benefits.
With that, I ordered a book from Amazon. My favourite genres are definitely dystopian/post-apocalyptic, thriller/suspense, and urban fantasy/supernatural, so I stepped out of that comfort zone to pick up the high fantasy Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard. I’ve never been a huge fan of epic fantasy, but I wondered if that’s just because I’d never given it a shot. I’d read a LOT as a kid and teen, and still there is a huge place in my heart for illustrated novels and manga. In other words, I haven’t read a proper, thick, wordy book for recreation for a while. As a data nerd and also a loser, I like tracking how much time I spend reading books! This one took 7 hours and 55 minutes over 7–8 days.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book, which was dense with world building, a prologue that opens the story with a horrific slaughter, and brilliant characters (featuring an immortal, a sorceress, and a bounty hunter!). Also, the book has the most gorgeous map. I finished it wishing I could visit the royal court or live as a teamaker in Isheida! So, what I’m saying is, if you’re ever feeling like you need a bit of a boost, maybe read some high fantasy.
Two things I learned on the job.
(1) Early- and late-career researchers treat their students very differently in terms of attention to their professional development. Dr. Gibbs runs a weekly journal club for her students (a combination of grad students, undergraduate honours students, and undergraduate volunteers). A journal club, like a book club, is a group of people who meet up to discuss recently published scientific articles, and a place to evaluate the study design, statistical tests used, questions and implications of the findings etc. I took a course in the first term of grad school called Advanced Dementia Care, and this course had a “tutorial” portion that functioned like a journal club. There, the eight of us would become more familiar with the dementia literature by bringing peer-reviewed articles to the group and critically appraising the research.
When Dr. Gibbs announced at our study progress meeting that she was going to lead a weekly journal club, my first question was why? Why would she take time out of her own busy academic schedule to organize and facilitate this program for her students? Dr. Gibbs has countless other projects on the go… why spend time benefitting the professional growth of her students? I was floored and I still am. I just find it so amazing that Dr. Gibbs puts so much attention into mentoring her students and setting them up for success. My hope is that, when I become a professor, I also carve out some time in my schedule to mentor my students and help them make mistakes and learn in a comfortable, safe academic setting.
(2) Academia can be draining, and it’s essential for role models to demonstrate healthy work behaviour. I keep a Google Doc packed wit notes for each blog post so I can jot down ideas throughout the month before coalescing them for blog posts at the end of each month. I had one bullet point on this document that read “what is it about academia that is so draining?”, so I figured I should elaborate on that.
Any search for “academia depression”, “grad school mental health”, or any combination of key words will show that people across all institutions and disciplines live with depression, high levels of stress, or anxiety. It’s no surprise, given that scholars are encouraged to work around the clock, receive constant feedback on their performance (supervisors, reviewers), and deal with a hyper-competitive environment/burnout/uncertainty.
From Dr. Jaclyn A. Siegel (@jacasiegel on Twitter): Please stop glorifying overwork. This sets an unhealthy standard for graduate students, who model the behaviors of those they admire. While working nights/weekends may, at times, be inevitable, finding work-life harmony is essential for surviving in academia.
In my experience, and in talking to my peers, I’ve learned that overworking is so common. Academia has a terrible reputation for its flexible, but constant, hours of work, and this summer I learned to schedule things properly. Taking at least one day off per week, which I certainly did not do before this summer, was very beneficial. When I relax on Sunday and go for a walk, read, cook, take a bath, and spend extra time stretching, I feel even more motivated to do my work on Monday. I try to steer clear of checking emails on weekends, and respond to them during regular hours on Monday morning. I love the independence that comes with academia, but it can be difficult as a graduate student to set boundaries.
One thing that helped me a lot as I started my summer internship was timing my productive work hours. This came to my attention because I learned that the average worker who works 8h/day only has 3h/day of productive work. This made me wonder how much time I spend checking emails, waiting for updates to install, having conversations, and frankly wasting time while working. I was surprised to learn that most people in a working environment spend only a third of their time working productively. With that, I started using a site called Several Timers to stay accountable for the amount of time I really spend working. I’ll open a number of timers and title them “Twitter”, “Thesis”, “Dr. Gibbs’ Work”, etc., and be extra-aware of my time management. Turning on a stopwatch motivates me to work attentively without distractions… maybe it’ll work for you too, if your attention span is anything like mine!
And before the curtains close, a massive thank you to Dr. Jenna Gibbs and her bone health laboratory for taking me on, to the Cansbridge Fellowship, co-founder William Yu, the Mitacs Accelerate program, and the entire network of friends for a lovely summer. It was truly an honour to be selected among such an ambitious, hardworking, and successful group of esteemed young leaders. I am very much looking forward to learning about the brilliant futures of everyone in my cohort.
