Rebooting: What to do when the PhD ends

The time has come! I am finally finished with the first year of my PhD (holy cr*p… can’t believe I can say that). I will write a reflection on my experience of the first year in an upcoming blog post – so stay posted! But for now, I am entering a two-week break before I start work full-time for the rest of the summer. These two weeks off feel like a dream; however, I have this one little thing hanging over me – THE FUTURE!

I can’t stop thinking about all the things that I want/need to do in the summer: reflect on what I have learned, organize my documents, continue research projects, write articles, and think through goals for my second year. All of this being new to me comes with fears of the unknown. As a girl with high anxiety, my mind usually conjures up all the bad things that could possibly happen if these things don’t get done. But I know that if I continue with these overwhelming thoughts then I will end up creatively blocked, I will retreat, and remain actionless. This is exactly what I want to avoid.

So here is my plan for the next two weeks:

1. Reflect

I plan on spending time reflecting on the top ten things I have learned this year, my top ten successes, as well as my top ten challenges. This will give me a chance to digest what the heck just happened this past year and allow me to appreciate how much I really did accomplish.

2. Spring clean

I don’t know about you but when there is a cluttered space around me, my mind is more cluttered. As soon as I get back to Toronto, I am going to go through everything that we own in our 500 square foot apartment – declutter, donate, and clean. My hope is that I will end up feeling lighter and it will leave more space to welcome in the new.

3. Do things that feel good

This past year has often been centered around getting things done for other people. But now I want to spend some time doing the things that I want to do. These are simple; I’ll listen to more music, cook, read fiction, get outside, do some more yoga, and volunteer. If you are looking for a good at-home yoga session, try this one out.

4. Set professional and personal goals

After I take some time for myself and reflect on the past year, I plan on setting professional and personal goals for the rest of the summer. I will be working, so I won’t have too much time, but I will have some. My goals will be a mix of both personal goals, something creative and fun – I am thinking a photography course. As well as professional goals; I am planning on making a reading list of some articles/books I wanted to get to in the year but never had the time to.

5. Manifest future goals

Now I hope you don’t get scared off with this last one. Manifesting can be as simple as talking about your past year and future goals ahead with your friends and family. I want to get clear on what I have learned and my future goals ahead. Once I am clear on these goals, I will positively think about them, meditate on them and manifest them to become real in my future.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to get a break, what do you do on your time off? I hope this post helps to support you in living your most authentic life!

Christine Streeter (@ScholarCulture) is a second-year PhD Student in the School of Social Work at Carleton University. This story was published on April 24, 2018, on Christine’s blog, Scholar Culture (available here), and has been republished here with her permission.