Balance is Key

Well hello everyone and welcome back to the Resilience in STEM podcast. I hope everyone has had a pretty good December thus far. I know this time for many people you are either spending time with family, going on vacation, or relaxing. If you’re working at a job, they typically give you a break around this time, which is nice. If you are in college or graduate school there is a little bit of a break. On my end, by the time this episode is published, I should be at home with my family trying to relax or taking up on some of my hobbies. I still have one more final left when I'm recording this. 

 

I have a little bit of a life update and a couple of reminders that I learned during the month. By the time I publish this episode my fall semester should be done. So this is why the episode may have a delayed publish date because I’ve been studying for finals. I usually try to get these episodes out within the first two weeks of the month, but this might be a little later. If it does come out in a reasonable time disregard this entire message. 

 

I submitted all of my graduate applications, which is a huge relief. I spent a lot of Thanksgiving break submitting the applications. Some advice I can share with you all is to try to not think about the state of your application and to live in the moment. You won’t know when you get those interview calls. It can be an email notification or they call you if you get an interview. Usually, you won’t hear back for an interview until late December to early February. I did get an interview invite thus far, which is such great news, from the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. They have an excellent medical center with a lot of resources. Although I do want to get out of Texas I do think applying to this institution is a great option for me and it is in Texas based on what I want. I have thought about creating a video of my reactions throughout this process (sort of similar to when undergraduates apply to multiple universities). I may do it, but just keep it to myself. I’ve also spent a lot of time working on senate projects. During the winter break, I’m expecting to be busy with meetings as I am from College Station, which is where Texas A&M is. 

 

I have a couple of reminders to share with you guys. If you're applying to graduate school this cycle or you feel you’re not ready to go into graduate school yet. I know a lot of people want a short break, more experience in their resume, or to learn a new discipline of research there are always postbaccalaureate programs (I talked about this in a previous episode). From what I heard even if you’re applying to graduate school there is a slight possibility that you won’t get an interview or acceptance into a program (or you won’t get into a program you want to go to). If you don’t hear back from anyone in mid-July, try to apply for a postbaccalaureate program. They are one to two-year programs at a university or national laboratory where you can do research under a professor and develop your professional skills for whenever you apply to professional programs (Ph.D., MD, or MD-Ph.D.) later on. This does give you more research experience and it is a paid opportunity and is hosted by hundreds of universities throughout the country. In addition, it’ll help you decide if graduate school is the right option for you. In a lot of universities, they are often called PREP programs. 

 

With all of these updates and the different things I’m involved with I get the question, “How do you balance everything in your life?”. As you all know I have to go to school, participate in research, student senate, be an ambassador for multiple organizations, and travel to a couple of places to present my research. This leads to the topic of the episode which is balance. This is key when participating in multiple things and learning how to be successful in multiple fields. Whenever you’re trying to accommodate a lot of things you need to stay organized and mentally balanced. I know a lot of people who cannot do a lot of things for multiple things. This includes personal issues and not knowing how to get started. On paper, it may look very daunting, but a lot of people end up taking on multiple tasks and executing them successfully. 

 

I thought I would give a brief overview of a day in my life since I am involved in a lot of things, provide some advice for getting involved in more activities, and why I am so heavily involved. 

 

This day of my life outline is very general because things may change week by week due to going to conferences, traveling, being asked to speak at events, setting up meetings for different organizations, working on applications, being part of promotional events, and more. To preface, I do like to have my classes in the morning so I can feel more productive and have a lot more time to get things done. I start my day by waking up and making breakfast (I tend to feel nauseous when I don’t eat), I go through my social media accounts to help wake myself up, I go through my therapy app, and then I check my calendar and email. This is before class so this is very quick scrolling through everything or just glancing. Next, I go to my classes and bring my iPad to take notes. During the afternoon I go to meetings I had previously scheduled with. This can be from my research lab if I’m asked to experiment, Engineering Honors to plan our events, Student success projects, and senate meetings with administration. As my afternoons vary a lot, I tend to get small breaks between meetings. This can look like writing or responding to emails, doing my homework, and having a quick lunch. In the evenings, I like to make a big dinner, work solely on my homework, and plan for the next day. 

 

One key to making sure I have a relatively smooth schedule is using a calendar subscription, such as Google Calendar. Multip;e things or events may be happening at random times and it can be difficult to remember it all in your head (which is overwhelming). I’m not the type of person to allocate 2-3 hours to study because sometimes homework or projects can be more difficult and may require more time. I do believe I have to allocate time to focus on certain topics and get however far I can. Another key is to start assignments or tasks earlier rather than later. Although an assignment deadline may be in a week or longer I never know how difficult it is or how long it will take. So taking that initiative helps in case I need more time. This goes with everything else I do with reaching out to faculty and scheduling meetings. The earlier I do it, it helps and it makes me feel on track. The last key to balance is staying positive throughout all of this. It can be daunting at times, but there are a lot of rewards for being involved. 

 

Some advice I like to give is to take things on little by little. Usually, this works out well. When you start at a job or in college, you don’t want to load on so many extra things because you’re in an introductory phase. You don’t know the dynamics of the people you will meet, what your expectations are, how your life will be, or what your limits are. So adding that factor of learning everything, it’s good to not add so many things onto your plate. A lot of the things I’ve done have been added on little by little. The only thing that I still do since my freshman year is undergraduate research. I was involved in two other organizations, but it was band (which had an allocated class time) and being part of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (which wasn’t the best fit for me). As time went on, I added one or two things every year and still accommodated them into my schedule. 

 

Another piece of advice is to just look at things day by day. I sometimes don’t look at my whole week because for me it’s really to get overwhelmed since there’s a lot on my calendar. Sometimes seeing a month or week's worth of activities can induce more stress and discourage people from accomplishing their goals. Usually, my Google Calendar shows me all of the required events I have to go to, which include classes, meetings, and reminders that I need to go and do something. My phone has my to-do list, which includes the type of homework I need to get done, emails that need to be sent, and laundry/cooking reminders. Also when you’re at meetings or events, make sure to take notes (just like in class). If you're involved in any organization, working on a project, meeting with the administration, or conducting research it’s really important to stay organized in your thoughts and take notes. I’m the type of person who likes to write everything down because I can get very scatterbrained when I'm overwhelmed, which can lead me to forget important details. These details can be important for future conversations. 

 

The last piece of advice I can give is don’t be afraid to say no. I learned this lesson a little too late (around my junior year). This was because my junior year of college was a lot harder than expected, which meant I needed to spend more time on things that I didn’t expect. It taught me to know my limits, which is a great lesson for everybody. It was also good for my mental health to say no. You do need breaks at times. You do need to hang out with your friends if you can. I spend my weekends at least trying to do one thing with friends or a social group having fun. 

 

I do this because it’s good to chase your passions and execute them well. When I came in I didn’t have a lot of expectations of what I was going to do, but when I started joining certain organizations, I had ideas of projects I wanted to accomplish. The biggest advice I received when starting was you can achieve anything at whatever time you want. So if you want to start now or later on that’s great. But also don’t be afraid to start because it tends to be the hardest thing to do (for example: initiating a conversation). It’s a little easier now for me to do projects because I know my network and they have been able to help me a lot. When I started though, forming those connections was a challenge. I had to put myself out there and “pitch” myself. The last thing, that holds to this podcast, is about representation. Although I knew I wanted to do this, I knew it was incredibly important. In leadership positions, it’s very uncommon to see underrepresented minorities in higher leadership positions with high regard. On my end from what I’ve seen, I’ve always been called the first Latina Academic Affairs Chair in the Student Senate or the first Latina Director for Engineering Honors Ambassadors. So there are small barriers I am working to smash day by day. But I also want to set an example to make sure I am not the last Latina in these positions because diversity does matter in whatever area you’re in. 

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