Article Summary: I finished my thesis! FINALLY! My oral defense went really well because I got a lot of GREAT criticism and comments from people before I gave my final talk! I’m finally an actual PhD with LDs! WOO! I visited Cape Town to see my future lab and FELL IN LOVE with the idea of working there! It has …Read or listen to the rest
Success!
Writing My Dissertation…
Article summary: I’m currently writing my dissertation (thesis). A dissertation is a long report covering your research over your entire graduate career. Writing a dissertation is an incredible amount of work and it sucks a lot! This article is about tips I learned that are helping me write my thesis right now. Published papers can be chapters in your thesis …Read or listen to the rest
Walls and Jet Packs: Part 2. Jet Packs are Awesome!
Article summary: People and things that prevent you from succeeding are wallers. Wallers suck! Jet Packs are people that help you overcome these walls I’ve been fortunate to have grown up with many supportive people These people still help me succeed Everyone needs this support to be happy and successful Find your own Jet Pack! Be a Jet Pack! Jet …Read or listen to the rest
Walls and Jet Packs: Part 1. Dealing with the Jerks.
Article Summary: People that prevent you from succeeding are Wallers. Wallers suck! Wallers can actively stop you or indirectly stop you. I’ve dealt with Wallers my whole life. Wallers have told me: I’m dumb. I should quit grad school and change professions. I will be a terrible scientist! They are wrong! Use their negative words to help fuel your fire to succeed. Try not to dwell …Read or listen to the rest
Run Away With Me
Article Summary: I believe that outlets are hobbies that make you happy while helping you become a better person. Outlets are needed by us LD and ADHD individuals to give us a chance to escape from the perils of our every day life. I use running as my outlet. Running helps me not go crazy over the ‘little things.’ Running …Read or listen to the rest
Adderall XR: A new beginning
Article Summary: I’m not ADHD but I have multiple symptoms of the disorder. I get distracted VERY easily! I began taking Adderall before my freshman year of undergrad Adderall allowed me to read books (which was almost impossible in the past) It also allowed me to study an unnatural amount of hours Reading is hard! Listen here! Attention Deficit pseudo-Disorder …Read or listen to the rest
Empty Frames
Article Summary I’m an eternal (annoying) optimist. My optimism helps me deal with my disabilities. Scientists NEED to be optimistic. If all of us LD and ADHD individuals had the optimism of scientists I think we would have the potential to perform at the best of our abilities! Celebrate your accomplishments by displaying them in way that you can see …Read or listen to the rest
Paper money
Article Summary Publishing papers are very important to your graduate career in science. Papers basically define you as a scientist. I was terrified about writing my first paper so I used hip-hop to psych me up to overcome my writing anxiety. Hip-hop would psych me up and it gave me the encouragement to write. When I was scared to write, …Read or listen to the rest
PhD me… Please? part 3
Article Summary My second year of grad school was a roller coaster of emotion. Your second year of grad school can be defined by its comprehensive exam. If you fail this exam two times than you get KICKED OUT of school. I passed the written part of my comprehensive exam but failed the oral defense part! I began to HATE …Read or listen to the rest
Schooling the imperfect perfectionist
Article Summary School has and continues to be VERY difficult for me I always worked really hard and got decent grades despite my disabilities I did well not only because I worked hard but because I also received appropriate accommodations (extended time on tests, a decreased distraction test environment, NO Scan-trons!, spelling and grammar were not always counted against me) …Read or listen to the rest