The re-birth of PhD students through the journey of failed experiments.

A naturalistic inspiration of science efforts

Author: Victoria C. (IG: @healthysciencelife)

SCG ID: 0906202119

As we all know May is mental health awareness month, and the particular theme this year is nature. I found some inspiration during my bike ride today, looking at how everything is blooming with the start of spring.

All the flowers, trees, shining with bright colors. The bees leaving theirs nests in order to hop over each bright flower, doing their amazing job. Plants start appearing everywhere, growing at what seems to be the speed of light. One day they are just buds and at the next day, they are already blooming with a red, pink, white, yellow flower.

I have always loved taking pictures of this transition, because it always amazed me how biology works. How is it possible that after -20°C and 30 cm of snow, the plant seems to have energy and resources to grow in matter of days once the sun starts shining and the temperature starts rising?

Nature is amazing and I’ve always said that… But today I’m taking this to another level. I feel as if PhD students are flowering plants.

We start being a really really small seed buried in the soil, trying to slowly push upwards to find the source of light. With every experience, experiments, presentations we get closer to that source of light.

But sometimes the season changes, and we have to deal with an intense winter, with really cold temperatures and centimeters of snow above our heads (i.e failed experiements, struggles with job environment, lab mates, etc). The winter seems unbearable, tough, harsh, as if it is taking too much time to end. The winter sometimes shrink us, the cold sometimes goes through our skin. We fight to maintain the internal heat, we try to solve the problems, repeat experiments, find solutions.

And without realizing, we start feeling a very subtle warmth coming from above, as if the sun is trying to tell us that the spring is coming soon. Part of the snow starts melting, more sun starts coming through.

We start seeing that beautiful blue sky, we start feeling how the warmth intensifies and transforms into heat.

We start finding solutions, answers, experiments start working, you start feeling excited again. The sun incites us to grow, expand, stretch. We look for more information, we make links between what we read and the results we get. We start to see correlations that could end up in an interesting molecular model.

We start expanding, reaching out, realizing all of the things you’ve done, and how far you’ve come. The snow finally melts completely, you are now ready to grow, bloom, enjoy the sun, cherish it... grow as tall and as far as possible. Learn that there will be another winter coming by, but never forget what the spring gives you.

In other words, we learn how to deal with winters, and cherish the springs. We grow after each failed experiment, we reach towards new surfaces after each problem solving situation... and above all, we bloom after every winter (no matter how harsh it was..)

My dear PhD students, never forget...

We are flowers waiting to bloom... Fighting through every winter... To bloom stronger every spring...

Read on her blog: https://medium.com/@vickycerdeira/the-re-birth-of-phd-students-through-the-journey-of-failed-experiments-c72a1b8672ed