Surviving grad school for the strong of mind
A year with anxiety and depression
This post is part of a special issue: “Mental Health Matters: Asking for Help & Reaching Out”. It was New Year’s Day ’17 when I first set foot at MIT for a one-week intensive Quantitative Biology Workshop. Little did I know that it was the experience that would change the course of my future. From […]
Overcoming anxiety
How my first year of graduate school pushed me to reach out for help
This post is part of a special issue: “Mental Health Matters: Asking for Help & Reaching Out”. Hey there! I’m Jessica, a current 3rd year graduate student and PhD candidate, and I have anxiety. I choose to say this in the first sentence because it needs to be out there in the open and talked about. […]
Iñupiuraallaniptigun Uqausiptigun Maŋŋuqaqtugut
With our Iñupiaq language, we have an identity
Aullaqisaaqta! Let’s begin! Iġñiġa Daał miluguuruq. My son Daał nurses often. I once read somewhere that Karl Marx had to chain himself to a library desk in order to finish Das Kapital. You might wonder what Marx has to do with nursing? Well, more than you might imagine. Baby Daał’ feeding habits have essentially tied […]
The Myth About Inbox(0)
Learning to manage my unmanageable email inbox in graduate school
After extolling the logistical heroics of Alexander the Great and his Macedonian Army, my military history instructor turned to the class and declared, “Good generals study tactics; great generals study logistics.” To my fellow graduate students, I offer a customized message: “Good graduate students study research methods; great graduate students study email.” In this digital […]
When Science Is More Art than Science
Or how I learnt to start worrying and stop loving science
Maybe climate change is a hoax and vaccinations cause autism. Maybe 9/11 was an inside job, the earth is as flat as my grandma’s pancake, pineapple belongs on a pizza, and you should switch to Geico. Just maybe. Being the curious species that we are, we have to entertain all possibilities, even if they sound […]
