The Throwback# Series

Hey guys,

When you start a PhD, at least in my case, during the first few weeks you are simply and completely lost. You have no idea what you can or cannot do, what you should be doing, how you should be doing it. And I think that’s normal… Throughout the whole process, the university really helps and explains all the procedures you have to go through and how to do it. And then you slowly start to adapt and understand. Until you reach the point of: “OK, I know what I need to do next!” And then you start learning more and more about the subject and yourself.

Well actually, during the first few weeks of my PhD I had one of those AHA MOMENTS. You know when you’re in school and in a class that you don’t really want to be in, and you ask yourself: “Why do I need to know this? Why is it so important? If I don’t want to study history/geography and I don’t like it, why do I have to be here?” Well, I had just finished one of the sections of the Literature Review chapter, and when I read everything, I called my parents and I told them that this wasn’t just event management, and I literally said: “Now, I know about politics!!!” Because specifically for me, I had to learn a little bit of politics, geography, law, history, sociology, management, marketing…

But, all of this rambling to say that everything I did until now, even though I didn’t really know it, contributed towards starting and actually doing a PhD, from High School to University. In reality, generally thinking everything you do, think, learn and experience may someday in some strange way help you. Well, that’s too philosophical… Either way, I decided to start a “series” (more or less) wherein each post, I explain a part of my life as a student.

The series is going to be called “Throwback#”, and I’m going to chronologically explain my story throughout high school, bachelor, master, the challenges I had to face and the opportunities along the way. I’m going to talk about my learning disabilities (ADHD & dyslexia), the medication, how I cope with everything, the strategies I adopted, and the bad and good side of all of it.

One of the reasons I decided to start this series and talk about it, is because there are a lot of kids with learning disabilities, and throughout the last few years, I have come to understand that not everyone embraces it as I do. Wrong… Actually, I haven’t met anyone who was as adapted to both the disability and the pills as I have. And there are good sides to it… Yes, it is a pain in the ass. Yes, at the beginning some people simply think you’re dumb and stupid.… And yes, you do need to work three or four times harder than anyone else, but that’s life. And that’s how you achieve anything!

I really hope you like it and I can maybe inspire you in some way.

And next week I will post the first “Throwback#1 – Starting High School”.

Alice