AILEEN >> Hello guys welcome to this episode where I will talk about how to stay sane in
grad school and make it until the end.
I decided to do this video because I saw online
stats showing a large percentage of grad students especially international and
PhD students are likely to suffer from mental health issues and as a
international PhD student who is in her fifth year I can definitely relate to
that and first of all our disclaimer is that all the information in this video
is a summary of my own experience so with n equal to one please take this
information with a grain of salt
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AILEEN >> So me uh so in my opinion I think mental and physical health are probably the
most important things in grad school and I would like to start by telling a
personal story. So starting in 2015 which is when I entered grad school I started
adopting a vegetarian diet and at the same time I was doing a lot of archery a
lot of exercises and a lot of experiments at the same time. Everything
was fine until one day in 2017 I started not being able to sleep and I was having
these cold sweats my heart was racing all the time and my muscle was
twitching which is what kept me awake all the time and I only got one or two
hours of light sleep every single night and I was so tired throughout the day.
And at one point I even thought about dropping out a PhD program to figure
things out. So I tried so many things including going to massages. I went to
Chinese acupuncture, go to physical therapy, and finally it was a neurologist
who told me that my iron level in my blood was actually 20% of what should be
in a normal person. And finally I figured out that I overworked my body by trying
to be a perfect human being. So this is when I started prioritizing my body and
feed my body the right things and constantly reevaluate whether I'm
overworking my body or not. And I really hope this does not happen to anybody
else. So please before you make any groundbreaking science, make sure that
you're mentally and physically healthy. Make sure you have a balanced diet, drink
lots of water and have good sleep every night so that your body is happy and is
ready to produce good science.
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AILEEN >> I think being a grad student definitely brings on a
lot of pressure and that affects how I define myself. Because of heavy research
and coursework this is a period of time that I tend to ignore the interpersonal
relationship part of my life. I am a textbook 'INFJ' personality which means
that I am perfectly happy being with myself. However this is also a perfect
excuse to not socialize. I'm blessed with some fluffy friends that keep me company
and make me happy you when I just want to be myself and stay at home and not
socialize but I also make time to socialize with my friends. I have some
hobbies like archery and this was taken two years ago when I was actively
competing with friends. It was a really good time.
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AILEEN >> I also like cooking. It is a very good idea because it's very relaxing and
especially if you have someone who can do the dishes after you're done. It's
also very economic on a grad student budget. So we just made a, what is it called?
ROOMMATE >> It's called, like, mole?
AILEEN >> Mole? Basically it's like a lentil, eggplant, tomato and red pepper
with parsley and a bunch of spice.
Dirty dishes. I don't know if anyone needs to see that.
I don't really smoke
or drink and that might make hanging out with certain groups of people harder but I
think I have made my peace with that and I found my niche. I slowly I came to
understanding that I don't have to do things that I don't like to just to be
with a certain group of people. Finally I want to talk a little bit about
relationship with your adviser because this largely shapes how the grad school
experience is going to be. I'm blessed with a very good adviser and I might
have to speak in future videos to get more advice on this. But speaking from my
own experience I see this relationship as teamwork. And that is, neither of us is
perfect and we don't necessarily share all of our life and work priorities with
each other. And without making this video a 30 minute long I would like to
summarize all my advice into one sentence and that is to understand that
your advisor is a human being that has flaws but still give them the trust and
respect that they deserve. I applied this in my daily interaction with my
professors and the people I work with. And this is not only how I say saying grad
school but also how I strive to be a better person.
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FRIEND >> In grad school I was lucky enough to have my wife and kids with me
so it was easier for me to focus on grad school
during the day and then when I go home I would have my family to to spend some
time with them and not focus on grad school. So in general I advise you to work on your relationship
to work grad schoo,l having personal relationships and having
your life relationships. This is as important as grad school itself.
For writing a dissertation it's good to finish your experiment three to six months before your defense.
Just so you can focus on writing and reflecting on your dissertation. It's a unique phase of grad school
where you reflect on all the work that you did and try to document it all in one dissertation.
FREIND 2 >> This is when in your video you can ask for a follow.
AILEEN >> Thanks for watching this video and I really hope everyone in
grad school can stay sane, stay healthy
and stay happy and make it to the end if you have any more questions please feel
free to get in touch with me and I will see you next time.
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