5th-year PhD talking to my 1st-year self

What would I tell 1st-year Vicky? Plus, the Music Highlight

Photo by the blowup on Unsplash

Dear 1st-year Vicky,

Good job for getting into the PhD program you always wanted to get into, especially after trying so hard! That’s great news!

I’d like to tell you a few things:

• You know that virus they’re talking about? Well you will be able to go to campus once but then it’s going into lockdown. Everything will be closed and for the next two-and-a-half years, you will not be able to visit.

• You will have online meetings with your supervisor and PhD group and they will work great! You won’t be able to have lunch together in the great cafeteria or coffee and cake and chat, but those days will come soon.

• Data collection in person will be impossible, because the region of the country you want to visit is self-governed and they will not allow visitors for the next five years at least. You will learn a lot about distance data collection, sound quality, and different conditions that the participants need to be in so that the recordings come out almost perfect to be processed.

• You will very often feel like you don’t know anything, so don’t feel bad or don’t feel like you don’t belong in this program. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask, no matter how easy you think something is and you should already understand. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people, yes, even cold-email people you have never met before.

• Following on from the point above, you will be very happy that the people you admire for their work are also amazing people! You will get to meet them, you will initially be starstruck (as happens when you’re nerding out on your research) and then you’ll see what fantastic and down-to-earth people (the sweeping majority) are.

• You will learn how important your organizational skills are - working full-time and doing a PhD, even part-time, is definitely no walk in the park.

• Lots of things will change in your life in the meantime, but you will keep going with your PhD and you will love doing it!

The Music Highlight

I heard this in a cab today and I remembered that I love it so much!