Academic lemons versus mental resilience

Claire-Marie Nuttegg (@ClaireNuttegg) is a PhD researcher in Graphene Biomedicine for Bone Tissue Engineering. In this heart-warming story, she sends a very empowering message to researchers and academics. Simply put she says — Although you’ll always have to deal with growing deadlines and projects, there is “really ever, ONLY one you” and so you need to take care of yourself, by prioritizing your health, both physical and mental.

Hi, pleased to meet you!

Sometimes I think it’s so obvious that combining PhD life with personal life means that we sometimes honestly don’t even know who we are anymore.

I am often defined as a mature student, a (now single) mum of 4 children, a pet owner, a sufferer of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and mental illness, a motivator (not sure where that comes in, but it’s been said a few times), and/or a second year PhD student. Despite this, I personally cannot exactly tell you who I am, just yet. However, to date, the best title I’ve ever been given so far was ‘graphene-ninja,’ coined by the lovely Fiona Tatton, founder of a digital magazine Womanthology, which is aimed at empowering positive female role models by providing a platform for them to network through their work and ideas. Nonetheless, if you just give me a bit more time to find myself, then I’ll let you know, who I am. But for now, I’d like to go by #Nuttegg.

Academic advice is not really realistic or translatable!

I could bore you with my journey thus far, but I won’t. I think it’s more important to reach out to all those students who are struggling mentally, academically, or in any other way. And let me tell you, regardless of your struggles, you are all at this stage of academia because you were one of the chosen few who COULD make it this far as compared to your peers. This means something — hold on to it! This is easier said than done though, because the road to becoming an academic or researcher can be, in my view, like taking a long walk, where the path is covered with Lego bricks, and you don’t have any shoes on. Sometimes, I feel it’s more like flying (or winging it with confidence and style).

Curious about Claire’s message? Read the full story here.