When you think of the holidays, what do you imagine? Being on the beach, the mountains, enjoying a relaxing time at home or exploring a new city? For some people however, the holidays are for working. Do you know what the word “Holiday” means? The dictionary defines it as an extended period of leisure and recreation; especially one spent away from home or travelling as well as a day of festivity where no work is done. It is a simple definition that does not always apply to a PhD student.
You may ask yourself; does not a PhD student continually travel? Are not they involved in lots of recreational activities? As a PhD student, I can say that these questions are true and false at the same time. Which is very contradictory, right? It is true that we travel a lot, most of the time to attend conferences and workshops. Also, we get involved in social activities during these meetings and often have a small getaway to know the places we are visiting. However, it is false to think that we do not work on these trips, we are always doing something related to our research (talking with potential collaborators, showing our results to the community, making new relationships).
This does not mean we do not have holidays. We have them!!! We can take a couple of days off to explore new places, visit family and friends or relax for a while. What is also true is that a few of us do not know how to separate our personal life of our work life because our minds are always thinking about emails, papers, codes, etc.
Work! Work! Work! Always working!
Even if we are on holiday, I will come back to Leeds soon to have my first work visit since I started working in ISDEFE, Madrid WOOHOO! It will be great to be back in the UK for a couple of days to work directly with my supervisor and see my old office mates. Additionally, I will attend a star formation meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland (I know what you are thinking, more travel!).
Hopefully, everybody is enjoying their holidays (or will enjoy them soon). Usually, they finish too fast!