Come and share your "wins" no matter how big or small. Let's cheer each other on!

[onlymyselftoanswerto1]

Academia is tough. Retraining as an adult is tough. There's no easy way through it and the pandemic has made an already lonely experience even more isolating and lonely!

I thought we could share some of our "wins" here - what is keeping you going and helping you plod though this?

Doesn't matter what stage you are at, retraining, undergrad, masters, PhD etc. join in and let's cheer ourselves and each other on!

I'll go first... I'm a 2nd year phd student and I have been doing some teaching in the uni since last semester. I got offered a TA role and when I emailed the module convenor (who I'd run tutorials for last semester) to accept and thank him for allocating me some more hours he said I was not just allocated the role but that he begged to have me 😱. I struggle every single day with imposter syndrome and just never feeling good enough (in both my phd in general and the teaching side of things)- so to know that an actual Professor begged to have me teach stats to their undergrads has just boosted my confidence no end (although it has also added the pressure of not wanting to mess up this semester 🤣🙄)

Your turn!

Congratulations! That must be gratifying.

I’m only partially involved in research at the moment - but just beginning to reap the longer term rewards of my MA a few years ago. (When I was already the oldest person on the planet.) New opportunities; becoming less invisible. Finally starting to feel less definitively unwelcome in my extremely niche field.

One unexpected thing from my mature study is that my tutors have become friends and ongoing mentors. It’s a level of support I never experienced following my first degree a million years ago.

Thanks @Literally yeah it was really nice to hear they appreciate me!

I'm constantly surprised how we are treated as equals rather than supervisor/supervisee too - I like the friendship side of it, I think it gives an incentive to keep going and helps us feel so supported too.

Glad to hear you are feeling more welcomed and secure as well - means a lot!

My ethics are approved so now I can do actual research on actual humans 🙌 (and now I'm feeling very daunted and anxious about it all!)