Community Assistant and PhD student in Education, Abbie Kewley, writes about what she wishes she had known at the start of her PhD.
To all those reading this who are about to embark on a PhD, I want to first of all say a huge WELL DONE! You should be super proud of yourself. I will never forget that surreal, *pinch myself* moment when my PhD project was accepted at Queen’s. My parents even organised a party for me to celebrate the occasion! I suppose *pinching yourself* (metaphorically, of course) is my main message that I want to convey through this blog post. A PhD is not intended to be easy, and you will need to keep pinching yourself during your journey. When you’re finding it stressful (which is only natural), pinch yourself as a reminder that YOU CAN DO THIS. When you present at your first conference, pinch yourself as a way of saying YOU DID IT. When you pass your differentiation, pinch yourself for succeeding in THAT PROCESS.
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