Last weekend was Easter weekend. For many people, it was a 3-day long weekend, and for some lucky folks, it was a 4-day weekend. If you’re an academic, though, chances are you didn’t have much of a weekend at all. Sure, you might have gone back to your parents’ place for dinner or an over-nighter. You might have put your feet up and finally had a chance to watch that Slumdog Millionaire DVD you picked up. But you might have just used your weekend in the way that academics often do: to work or to worry.
I can tell you with total honesty and sincerity that one of the greatest pleasures I experienced when I started my little joe job after I finished my Ph.D. was the weekend. It was actual me time (which is funny to think about, now that I’m a mom) that I could spend in any way I wanted without guilt. I could go for walks or watch TV or cook or read or hang out with friends and not have a monkey on my back. I could just breathe more easily, knowing that I was doing these things for their own sake, rather than as a pleasant diversion from the dissertation. It was a completely different way to live, and it took me months to really take weekends for granted (the way I do now).
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This is so true! I remember the first post-leaving academia trip I took to the mall. I I went with my cousin and she was really shocked when I said it was the first time in years I had left the house without feeling guilty about not using that time to be ‘productive’.
Yeah. You think back to that time and you realize how crazy it was to live life that way.
This alone is motivation and inspiration. Free time to spend on my three best hobies 1) hiking, 2) making clothes, and 3) painting. The creative side of me is too often sacrificed for the academic scientist……arggh