I’m sorry that I’ve not posted anything for a couple of weeks, It’s been quite a manic time. I’ve been chasing up the financial services at university for the best part of two weeks trying to get them to sign a single form for me. I’ve heard horror stories about the financial services, but I didn’t quite believe them until now. Nobody actually knew who had my form, so I had to email and ring so many different people it’s been very stressful. I’ve also been working quite a lot of hours at the pub, and I’ve not really had any time to do my research, which has made me feel very stressed. As a self-funded student, it can sometimes feel like all you do is work to pay for a degree that you have no time to work on because you’re too busy trying to pay for it.
But this last week has also been one of some major personal achievements. I taught my first four university seminars, and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. Teaching is a really important part of doing a PhD, particularly if you’re wanting to pursue a career in academia. You don’t teach in the first year of your PhD, but you are encouraged to in subsequent years. I didn’t think that I’d be able to this year, because I’ve moved away from Bristol. However, I managed to secure some last minute teaching at a local university. I am not a confident public speaker at all, but I can just about manage delivering a conference paper because you have something in front of you to read from. It’s not as easy to write a transcript for a seminar, because it’s not always possible to predict the direction that the discussion will go in. As such, there’s a lot of thinking on the spot as you respond to the direction that the discussion does take. And I have this fear that if I don’t have something to read from, I’ll forget everything I know, and I won’t be able to say anything intelligent. But, in spite of my anxiety, I managed it! I’ve also been asked to teach some future seminars as well! Because the pay for teaching is rather good, it means I’ve been able to go back to the pub and ask for fewer hours. Trying to sort this out has been quite stressful, but I’m now working one/ two days a week with the pub. This allows me to spend the rest of the week focusing on my research. It’s also allowed me to start working on a paper that I’m supposed to be presenting in Bristol at the end of this month!
I’m feeling a lot less stressed right now, which is a relief. I’m hoping that over this coming week I’ll be able to write some posts for OCD Awareness Week (13th-20th October). I have a piece that I’m working on for the Student Minds Blog, but I would like to post some stuff on my own blog too. I’m not sure what format this will take, but I have 24 hours to come up with something…. wish me luck!!
OCD, the PhD and Me 