Winter 2019 midterms are finally over! Multiple snowdays last week and mounting non-school work made it feel like midterms would never end. Yet they did and I left them feeling more confident about what I learned this quarter than my first quarter. Whether that actually translates into good scores - well, that's another matter. However, I'm really trying to focus on the reasons I'm doing a PhD - to learn and to improve on the areas I struggle - and worry less about homework or exam grades.
This isn't easy, particularly when a lot of classmates get riled up about their GPAs, how much time they're studying for tests, and trying to ace class assignments. It's challenging to consistently quell the anxiety that you're not doing enough or gaining knowledge as quickly as fellow students; to genuinely derive satisfaction from your own (gradual) personal progress without comparing your performance against others and skittering into imposter syndrome feedback cycles. One step at a time, one step at a time...
Today I learned...
Two things! (well, two things that particularly tickled my fancy):
1) Elephants can get and transmit tuberculosis (TB), just like humans. Apparently it can be pretty rough on them too, with their large respiratory systems and all.
2) BMI - body mass index - also was/is called the Quetelet index. I was reading an early 1990s paper for a homework assignment and couldn't figure out why this Quetelet index kept being talked about (especially when the homework question was asking about obesity). Google revealed that, lo and behold, BMI and the Quetelet index are one in the same. I wonder why or how BMI became more widely known, both in general but also among researchers...oh the Google-ing rabbit holes to hop down!
Today I'm grateful for...
The IHME Post-Bachelor Fellowship. I'm currently helping with interviews (and dogsitting dogs of interviewers), and as I'm talking with candidates, I keep thinking about how much the program shaped my career and life trajectories. It was far from smooth-sailing and I certainly had my share of ups and many downs, but the IHME PBF program ultimately equipped me with the scientific foundation, skills, and passion for global health research that keeps me excited about pursuing this kind of work to this day. That and well, some of the most meaningful and lasting friendships, professional opportunities, and mentors I could ever imagine. So thank you, IHME and the individuals who picked me to join this the fledging program back in 2008. Thank you for taking the chance on a wide-eyed, ever-so-slightly enthusiastic, science-loving, non-coding psychology major who didn't know anything about global health way back when. It's been quite the ride ever since.
Today's best part...
Was the pure joy of a corgi luxuriating in Seattle's big snowfall from last night. Mickie the corgi, whom I'm dogsitting, and I walked ~3 miles this morning into the office, and well, the video is worth a thousand words.
This isn't easy, particularly when a lot of classmates get riled up about their GPAs, how much time they're studying for tests, and trying to ace class assignments. It's challenging to consistently quell the anxiety that you're not doing enough or gaining knowledge as quickly as fellow students; to genuinely derive satisfaction from your own (gradual) personal progress without comparing your performance against others and skittering into imposter syndrome feedback cycles. One step at a time, one step at a time...
Today I learned...
Two things! (well, two things that particularly tickled my fancy):
1) Elephants can get and transmit tuberculosis (TB), just like humans. Apparently it can be pretty rough on them too, with their large respiratory systems and all.
2) BMI - body mass index - also was/is called the Quetelet index. I was reading an early 1990s paper for a homework assignment and couldn't figure out why this Quetelet index kept being talked about (especially when the homework question was asking about obesity). Google revealed that, lo and behold, BMI and the Quetelet index are one in the same. I wonder why or how BMI became more widely known, both in general but also among researchers...oh the Google-ing rabbit holes to hop down!
Today I'm grateful for...
The IHME Post-Bachelor Fellowship. I'm currently helping with interviews (and dogsitting dogs of interviewers), and as I'm talking with candidates, I keep thinking about how much the program shaped my career and life trajectories. It was far from smooth-sailing and I certainly had my share of ups and many downs, but the IHME PBF program ultimately equipped me with the scientific foundation, skills, and passion for global health research that keeps me excited about pursuing this kind of work to this day. That and well, some of the most meaningful and lasting friendships, professional opportunities, and mentors I could ever imagine. So thank you, IHME and the individuals who picked me to join this the fledging program back in 2008. Thank you for taking the chance on a wide-eyed, ever-so-slightly enthusiastic, science-loving, non-coding psychology major who didn't know anything about global health way back when. It's been quite the ride ever since.
Today's best part...
Was the pure joy of a corgi luxuriating in Seattle's big snowfall from last night. Mickie the corgi, whom I'm dogsitting, and I walked ~3 miles this morning into the office, and well, the video is worth a thousand words.
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