REGGIE >> Hello everyone this is future PhD, Dr. E here and this is a very special episode
of putting the U back into gradUate school and today's episode is gonna be
about current events, coronavirus like a lot of other and we're just gonna talk
about how it's affecting me personally, how it's affecting you personally as
well as my whole thoughts about this whole pandemic. So let's get into it.
So first, I want to thank you for forgiving this
bad room setup. This apartment is currently in
transition and this was the best place to do this vlog for you.
So this whole situation like the rest of you like sucks right.
Like for me, lab has been cancelled so I can't do any experiments like any data
so I'm basically my my graduation is basically delayed. That really sucks cause
I was trying to graduate before I turn 30 and I don't know if that like possible
now and that's frustrating because I really can't do anything research
oriented and for you graduating seniors over there watching this anyway, I think
you like it sucks because your entire year has been canceled, right, like
classes are canceled too, you're being evacuated from your homes if you live in
student housing, graduation has been canceled, and basically all the events
have me canceled just like really sucks because like you spent all these years
making friends and now the universities are basically telling you to go home and
you can't do anything. Personally, um, it's really hard on me because I have a lot
of family in California, specifically a niece and a grandmother and a few sisters
and it's stressful for me because I really can't do anything. My niece and my
grandmother are they're both older populations it's not like I can do
anything to support them. My sisters are basically told they can't work at their
facilities they have to work at home and they both work in small businesses so I don't
even know if I'll have a job when all this is over and I really want to be
there to support them but I can't for those who don't know, being from
California, California has been shut down at a state level. It used to be at New
York - no not New York, it used to be LA and San Francisco, now the entire state is being
locked down and because of this I'm not sure if I'd
be able to physically be there for them because I don't want to go on an
airplane because I can get coronavirus I'm gonna pass that on to my niece and
my grandmother which I don't want to do. And driving from Michigan to California
would take three and a half to four days and with the state being shut down I
don't know if I'll be allowed into the state like I've been told that they're
closing down borders and travel be heavily restricted.
I think that there
are a lot of good things I'm thankful for. Like for the situation too. One of those
things I'm thankful for right is like even though everything like the world
feels like it's burning like internally it's like a break
and what I mean by that is you can like stop and breathe. Like being grad student
and being like a high achieving student is like there's a lot of long hours and
you're always trying to push push push and trying to get things so a lot of
things fall on the back burner and now I have a lot of time to think about like
where I want to go in life and am I happy where I currently am. Another thing
I'm really glad about is since we since basically the world is on pause I
actually have a lot more time to communicate with loved ones, friends
included, and just because again I'm a grad student and like a lot of things
are busy a lot of things are like now-now-now snap snap snap and that
really doesn't give me time to talk now I do have a lot of time talking like
what else can we do like I really can't work from home because my main
contributions to research has been stopped. Another good thing I like
about the shut down is I'm able to have time to pursue hobbies but you probably
noticed here is my keyboard right here.
The reason I bring this up is because I used to like playing music I used to like writing and
recording and composing and I don't really have time for that in grad school
and I'm really excited I'm able to pursue these hobbies I used to have
again and like this is kind of like I'm seeing this coronavirus situation it has a
time for self-care because we're like there's a lot of stuff going on right
and I think this is like a good break to focus on yourself and make sure you're
healthy as well as keep being productive. For those who don't have musical
interests there are other things you can do too right like you can I definitely even if
it's not music I definitely encourage you all to pick up a hobby or something
you really want to learn cause this is a great time for it. For me it's music, for you
it might be poetry, it might be film? I don't know what it is but you should
definitely find out. One thing I'm also doing with my lab is we're gonna do yoga.
We haven't actually decided when we're gonna do yoga but we're gonna do yoga
virtually and this is a good way to stay connected even though we're all in
summer houses and we can't see each other physically. We're also in my
department we also started a slack channel and that basically allows us to
stay connected. We're gonna have vlogs, we're gonna have like reviews for games
Right now in my lab we're thinking about playing the game Dominion and yeah like
this is a scary time but I think we're gonna get through it and I think even
though things are insecure this is I feel when times are tough
this really shows what your community really is and my community has been much
more supportive than I ever thought they would be and I hope the same can be said
about yours. Anyway that's it for this quick update. So I don't know what I'm
gonna do for this next few vlogs because I originally had
dating and free dates well cheap dates and Ann Arbor as a grad student and then
I was going to go through housing and transportation and you know as you soon
at University of Michigan but with the coronavirus I'm gonna think I'm just
going to do more about what I'm doing and life in this quarantine with you all.
Do you have any suggestions you'd like me to cover? Let me know and I hope I'll
see you all soon. This is future PhD Dr. E signing out. By all!