-Mael Mauchand
Grad students.
For the past 6 months I’ve been talking with McGill graduate research students in my podcast, Grad Scientists and Where to Find Them. The concept is simple: a casual discussion where students can freely talk about their research and their life. You can check it out here: https://gswft.podbean.com/.
Listening to them sharing their work, ideas, and feelings really inspired me and taught me many things. One of these things is that grad students are awesome. So here is a praise to all grad students.
Grad students are passionate
There is nothing more pleasant than listening to someone talk about what really drives them. Sparkles in the eyes and an unstoppable flow of words, that makes everything someone says a billion times more interesting. Whether talking about their work, their life, their opinions, or just ranting (yes, ranting is a form of passion), the students I have met share this excitement that makes me want to sit down with them and listen, debate and laugh. Fields I had no interest in become fascinating. Grad students are fascinating.
Grad students are clever
How many times have I listened to someone talk about their research, and thought: how do they know all this stuff? From a physics student explaining how neutron stars get created to an engineer describing how they can simulate the movement of thousands of particles with a supercomputer, I’m simply amazed all the time. Even when neuroscience students tell me what they do, I get lost. Everyone is an expert in something here. And everyone is incredibly smart.
Grad students want to talk
Just give them the opportunity. As shy and introverted someone may be, if there is a listener, they will speak. And they will speak well. Pretty much all my guests had warned me: “I’ve never done this before, so this might be terrible”. Turned out to be true for none of them. After speaking flawlessly for sometimes more than an hour and a half, they realized that it was not so bad after all.
Listen, ask questions, show interest. You will learn a lot and you will make people happy. And talk, also. Talk to everyone about what you do, because what you do is awesome.
Grad students are resilient
It’s a secret to no one here, research is not always awesome, and can be rather unforgiving. The guests from the next episode of my podcast (out soon!) have experienced this big time. But they stayed strong, made the changes they needed, and kept going. Pressure, false hopes, overwork, doubts, all guests have shared the many obstacles they faced. But they also shared the good things, the happy thoughts, the proud moments. Their advice? Cherish these moments, even the smallest ones, in whatever way you want. Things don’t always go the way we want, let’s celebrate when they do. We can get through all this.
Grad students are not alone
If you feel like I’ve been reciting obvious things for the whole time, that’s good: it means we’re all experiencing the same thing. Despite the incredible diversity among grad students, we all share the same story. It’s easy to feel lonely in this environment, but it doesn’t have to. Let’s share what we do, beyond conferences and paper. Let’s talk about the humans behind the research. We are graduate students, we are researchers, and we are not alone.