CHRISTINA >> Hey! It's Christina. Last time I was in lab and I was sharing you with you about
my professional life in Ann Arbor and this time I want to share with you about
my personal life - what else do I do as a PhD student other than research and one
of the really cool things about living in the Midwest is we have a lot
of space and so I have a basement and I got to finish it this past year and so I
was able to just make a lot of space for different hobbies. I've made a yoga area,
kind of lounge where I can eat, watch TV, play video games, play board games, and at
this table where I can do my crafting. Um some storage you can see the Keyblade
reference. This stores different fabrics, poster board, and I
haven't got the lights shades up I need to I need to cut them so that they can
fit because of the rafters in this space. But it's a work in progress and it's
something I've been able to spend a couple years on. I've been in this
apartment for two years. I moved in this place was buggy, it was just some old
boxes, some of them had water damage and so I started with cleaning up and then I
wanted a space where I could stretch out. The gym isn't always super appealing
when it gets dark at 5 o'clock so that's kind of what started this space. And I
now have an ab workout I do with this ball but originally it was just a yoga area.
Some of the other cool features is this fine of a painting I found at the
Ann Arbor Art Fair. So every year Ann Arbor has this really cool Art Fair
where thousands of vendors come from across the country and this vendor
actually had painted a picture from my home state in North Carolina, had white
cedar, it just was a beautiful rendering and this was another piece that I think
was just expiring for for meditations and workouts and the different
mindfulness that I had kind of in this area going. I also have done martial arts so I
have some Taekwondo, different foreign books and pads to practice with. Then
from there, I go on I have a place to lounge um I can do different meal prep
right now I'm not super exciting I having some rice and then this is um
banana and acai ice cream that I whipped up. Um it's kind of lower calorie than
some of the alternatives. I don't really know exactly what you want to be
interested in by coming here but I just want to give you a variety of things to
know that there is time in life to, you know, have hobbies, have indulgences, you
know have a healthy diet. I have time to workout and make good food and
keeping my body in shape really helps me, you know, engage my mind fully in the
PhD program and teaching and outreach written whatever I may be doing that day.
Oh and I forgot to mention about those cute little animals are some of my
inspiration for what I do. So the baymax doll is a movie that makes kids
want to grow up to be mechanical engineers and the doctor bear is for my
internship at Children's National Hospital where I was able to see the
intersection of research and application. So that's I kind of keep them over there
as a momento but one thing I think um a lot of
nerds can relate to is just the influence gaming both video games and board games
has had. So pandemic is absolutely one of my favorite games. I keep here this is a
Anniversary Collection. It's cooperative, it helps you interact
with others, have fun strategy, work out your muscles without being too
competitive without losing any friendships. The other thing is Kingdom
Hearts, just came out, so you might have saw the Keyblade I have and I got this
system and since it's been able to be used to host movie nights where we've
watched Marvel with some of my closest friends um I think I want to talk about
a blog about community building so kind of going from having space for yourself
to recharge. Having space to be with others to know people in your program
and then to know people in your in your town beyond the school. So that's the
trajectory I kind of want to go with these outside of lab vlogs. Um so let me
know if that sounds interesting to you or if you had any specific questions you
would want to see answered within that. But for now I just want to continue
kind of walking and talking through this cavern tour. And yeah just the
different things you can do to recharge so here is my crafts table and
where we do the board games. I have some calligraphy stuff out right now. I think
having messaging where you know that you're important um and for me I view
that through a Christian lens so I'm not the most important thing the world
doesn't stop or start with me and I think even from a humanist perspective,
we are part of a bigger organism and a bigger fear purpose and that remains
true and so it keeps me grounded that I I should really invest in doing the best
I can um and be happy with that. So helping
you know my family my neighbor but also performing well at work and and knowing
that contribution can move whether it be the economy forward to some extent but
hopefully also science forward. I think having these little reminders for me
making quotes is one way to get at remembering that in the task I'm doing
because sometimes when you're in the minutia you get lost in why you're
here so that helps me have that larger vision. Like I said for me that is really
viewed through a Christian lens, may my worth be for the Glory of God but even from a
humanist lens or other religious lenses that you may have, I think connecting
that driving purpose with your everyday activity is just really
useful. So calligraphy is one way I've been able to do that. I originally
started calligraphy after a summer in Japan. We had had some instruction with
brush calligraphy. Right now I was experimenting with quill calligraphy so
any tips on that I was not successful with all the knobs and getting the ink
flow right so far but you know learning something new even on this small scale
and in things that aren't going to be a consequence it helps me flex those
muscles and know that it's okay that if I can get through learning this thing
I knew nothing about when I started I can certainly get through learning about
my field of research, which I have been studying for years now depending on when
you say I started engineering I'm going on eight years and so I think you know I
know how to acquire new skills and and reminding myself of that and going
through the learning process of something very simple. For example using
a quill can just really inspire me to be like 'I can
this complicated mathematical equation' or 'I can learn this new
machining technique' or an example of both of those things are I'm working on
in lab an example of something I think I found intimidating outside my space was
trying to learn the blood-clotting chemical cascade. So from a physical
perspective I was looking at how rigid the blood clot was, I was looking at the
shearing flow at what velocity the fluid is traveling at, but when you talk about the
chemical components and how they're going to act that's much scarier to me.
But I have reinforced myself time and time again that I know how to learn and
I think that's something you want to be confident in as a PhD student but also
if you have that imposter syndrome if you have that doubt it isn't something
you should use it as an excuse not to try your hand at research but just as
you get here and as you keep advancing, see if you can articulate those methods
of learning and really get into a mindset where you're actively engaged,
and you're able to troubleshoot yourself like your methods of
approaching problems and then also what these sources when you do get stuck
should you be engaging with you should you go. And so it is a big idea to get
out of just that little book of calligraphy but it helps put me in that
mindset of self-reflection. And so these are some puzzles sometimes you just need
brainless work and that's puzzling for me it's you're looking very
closely at coloration at pieces and you're not thinking as much about you
know super hard concepts. So, we've made it to the library to edit
and we found out some of the video is a little bit distracting with the lighting.
So I was just gonna recap here and then go back to my editing station so I was
talking about a video game called Journey and pulling some analogies of
how it's taught me lessons relevant to PhD life and one of the things is
there's no traditional game over. There's no like one critical failure point. You
fall off the map, you take a wrong turn, it just ends up
taking longer, you learn different information, sometimes it's helpful sometimes it's not,
but yeah it's not
you do the same exact thing over and over again. It's pretty special
and I think that learning that there's multiple paths and not just one main way
to go is really useful.
Yeah and so I think the last thing um I want to share with you is just um like
everything doesn't have to be perfect. I worked on this space because I like
the idea of doing interior design and there's so much events sorry position
events around it. The Marie Kondo literature and different meditation
podcasts all these things you know talk about space and how you how you use your
space. And so I wanted to create that but even if you have a much smaller you know
you have a New York City apartment and it's a 10 foot by 10 foot square, you
can do something with that. You can purpose it in a way where you see things
that inspire you where you're you know your bed can double as a place you
stretch and you can encourage that by getting your yoga band or doing
something silly or finding even a communal space a place in a public park
or garden where you feel like you can relax and take a moment and be in your
thoughts and not be worried for not just like where you feel safe but please I
encourage you as much as you are able to feel safe in the space, but where you
feel like you can explore your thoughts because there is room. There is
nothing pressing in the environment at least it's hard to escape our
responsibilities. I have a lot of responsibilities to my family that have
been affecting me this past month and that's okay. I am
happy that they trust me and they love me and and they can reach out for
support. At the same time having this space to recharge where visual
distractions are low for me and I see things that remind
me of positive contributions of things I have done and would love to do to
again continue that momentum of helping a pediatric wing or, you know, inspiring
students with my outreach activities, and designing new things for high schoolers
to do. In this coming session we're having with Detroit Public Schools to
feel like they can understand some of the concepts behind engineering and
could study it for themselves if they want to. That's what a lot of these
memories and these little trinkets or games mean and they give me a space
where I can consider that and not just consider you know where's my next paper,
where's my next, yeah, you know ability to help in a very tangible way either
myself or others. And I want you know to be able to recharge because to do that I
need to have energy and I need to be able to to get in words and not fix
myself but grow myself and continue to mature so that when I'm leaned upon
when I have bigger tasks you know if I become a professor and I have grad
students teaching and research or perhaps one day if I have adopt children.
All these big grandiose thoughts you can't be really good being with others
if you're not even good at being with yourself. So that's why one of the
reasons I carved out the space and I hope it encourages you to with whatever
resources you have a lot of this was thrift stores and secondhand rebuys
or things I had moved with the table that I
found by a dumpster versus the carpet I did order special because I love the
color orange. But yeah, life's what you make of it
and so making a space where you get to be in control and get to have a hominess
is something I really encourage you and it doesn't have to be this large but
think about one hobby you like or one one thing you don't want to forget and
and place that not in a box and a shoebox under your bed but place it
front and center and to where you spend your evenings. Yeah I really just wish
you all the best if you are trying to pursue a higher education and even if
you're just end up watching this vlog because I twisted your arm and you know
me. Yeah I really hope it gives you a chance to reflect and find a little zone
to be yourself and to grow. Bye!