Part 1: Carpe the %@&$! out of that diem.
Like most new graduate students, I started my first year (Fall 2020) doe-eyed and energized, despite starting during the midst of a pandemic. Naively, I figured success in a PhD program would be as simple as wash-rinse-and-repeat the same good study habits from undergraduate years. Interviews and orientation week quickly shifted that notion. During this introduction, one thing that stood out to me was that some advice about navigating graduate school is not really advice – it is an unspoken rule. Second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth year students as well as faculty all echoed some of the same wise words over and over, as if they were whispered laws to some secret society that I was unknowingly being initiated into.
Truthfully, an entire section of a library could be dedicated to this topic and I’m not sure I am the most qualified (certainly not the most experienced) to write about it. However, hindsight is 20/20 and I have had the fortune of getting to know some truly remarkable scientists who are at different stages of their careers. These mentors and friends have reflected on their grad school experiences and divulged their hard lessons learned – and the epiphanies they wish they had reached sooner.
The unspoken rule I regularly find myself looping back to is “carpe the %@&$! out of that diem.” This could be interpreted a number of ways from the Latin ‘seize the day’ to the formerly trendy ‘YOLO’. However, the substance of this unspoken rule is to take opportunities as they come and seek them out if they aren’t there. First year in a graduate school is filled with uncertainty and second-guessing. Did I choose the right lab rotation? Am I studying enough for these exams? Rather than staying present in that fear, embrace them as new chances to learn and develop into a versatile professional and scientist. Since a doctorate is a terminal degree, you get one chance to explore in grad school so make the most of it. By following this rule, I have had the opportunity to experience new things I never could have imagined. I have characterized bone integrity with microindentation, created my first ever research poster, and cradled adorable parabiotic mice. On the flip side, I have also had the tough calls when “seizing the day” --well--it stunk. Those days meant studying until the wee hours of the morning, getting nipped by a mouse, or coming in at night to a deserted lab. The biggest takeaway from this philosophy is to forge your own path and not be left with the “woulda, coulda, shoudas.” What if the lab you’ve dreamed of rotating in is not on the open lab list? Reach out to that PI anyways and show your genuine interest in their work. Graduate students graduate, funding on a pending grant gets approved, or the PI’s kids are back in school (they have lives too!) – all of this mean there could be a place for you in that lab, if you ask. What is the super-cool-techno-wizardry machine you need for your experiment is in Department Y and you are in Department X? Be brave and cold-email a Department X faculty member who works with it and ask for training. The point is that if you don’t ask, the answer is always ‘no.’
The benefits to adapting this unspoken rule and revisiting it early and often are tremendous. Of course, there is the personal satisfaction of knowing that you are forging your own journey and making decisions in your self-interest. However, I would say the biggest benefit is the networking you have gained and, as a result, the reputation you have built for yourself. By following this unspoken rule, you have not told but shown others that you are a go-getter and in control of your future (even though things can feel out of control). Your reputation always precedes you, especially when you enter the workforce where everyone seems to know everyone. A quick reminder, it can take an average of 5.7 years to go from start to finish in a PhD program. Those 5.7 years are made up of 2,080.5 days; that is 2,080.5 opportunities to change the course you career by seizing the day and having #NoRegrets. Ultimately, it is your future it is up to you to take the initiative and construct, so “carpe the %@&$! out of that diem” in the best way for you.