Dreamer

Hello dreamers and happy Tuesday!

As I was heading to a conference in Timisoara, Sim 2023, and creating business cards for me and some of my friends, I started to dwell on what got me to this point in life: the Ph.D.

To be truly honest with you, I have days and days when I think of quitting it! For real, after my grandma passed, my motivation went downhill.

Having a “Doctor” in the family was such a blessing for her. She wanted the best for me and my sister and made sure we didn’t have to worry about anything but studying.

However, after a year of this Ph.., all I can say is that if you know your motivation, you’ll be able to do it anyway. However, if your motivation is only to discover, maybe I am good at this, maybe I want to do research, well, then the chances of giving up are pretty high.

The reasons for my Ph.D. are strictly related to my profession. I am a high school teacher, and having a Ph.D. has many advantages.

However, when you tell people that you are working for a Ph.D. and do not plan to stay in the faculty, they might think you are a little off. Maybe it’s because they think higher education it’s better, maybe they think the salary is better and so many motifs I have heard.

Working as an associate for my university for the second year, I had the pleasure of experiencing the beauty of teaching students. It’s nice to have some different topics to talk about, some different perspectives and mentalities. But I stick with my opinion. It’s better to have the opportunity to actually teach them something generally valuable, than something specializing. Besides, working with high schoolers, I feel like I am really making a difference in their life, as they are at the critical point of their lives when they start to see the real world and are in need of examples.
It’s not fully decided if I’ll stay in the faculty or not, but as an associate, I will do my best to train students in different technologies in the food industry.

If it is to talk about the classes I took as a Ph.D., I want to tell you that some of them are pretty nice and interesting, some might get you wondering why. I loved that I took some statistics and management classes that are useful no matter what path I took. On the other side, maybe my expectations were too high to think that we would be seen, not as equals, but not as students anymore and that we’ll get more understanding of our jobs and personal lives, outside this obligation.

When it comes to the obligation, for us is to get published in 2 ISI Journals and one conference. I admit, I feel that am overwhelmed. And a bit of impostor syndrome doesn’t help.

Besides that, I want to tell you that if you want to get a Ph.D., you must want it! It’s just a college or master’s degree, with more expectations and less fun, cause you have a job, maybe a family, and some other responsibilities.

Until next time, have #adreamerlife and check our previous post!
Cristiana Apreutese