{"id":2893,"date":"2019-06-12T10:18:29","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T10:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/a-baby-and-a-fellowship-rejection-in-the-same-week\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T08:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T08:23:13","slug":"a-baby-and-a-fellowship-rejection-in-the-same-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/a-baby-and-a-fellowship-rejection-in-the-same-week","title":{"rendered":"A baby and a fellowship rejection in the same week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over four years ago, I came home from the hospital in the evening after a day that started with me thinking I was in labor (and so did the midwives, by the way) but ended with me not being in labor anymore, while the baby was still in my uterus. I was exhausted and wanted to go to bed, but just before that I checked my email. Back then, my private email and most of my work email came to the same email address. And there it was: a long-awaited email from the EU with the results of whether I was going to get a Marie Curie fellowship to do my own research back in my home country. As the EU did back then, the email just said something along the lines of \u201cfellowship results,\u201d and then you had to click a link, log into their participant portal, find out that your password has expired, make a new password, and log in again to find a very cryptic message that still did not really say whether you got the money or not. I was exhausted from being in the hospital all day, but my heart was racing at the same time because I wanted to know if I got the fellowship or not.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward: I did not get the fellowship, but I did have the baby 5 days later. And now that I look back at those emails, I\u2019m surprised to see that within 2 weeks of giving birth, I was emailing with the professor who gave me feedback on this grant, on how to rework it into a new grant. I so very much wanted to succeed in academia that I kept thinking and working around birthing a baby. But before you get all \u201cjudgy,\u201d I also remember very clearly how this was a way for me to stay connected to my normal world, my world that I was used to, and to try and avoid the world I had experienced with my first-born, a world where I felt so alone with a crying baby. I was not \u2013 and still am not \u2013 someone who can sit still for a long time. I wanted to continue to think about science even though I had just had a baby. I want to take care of a baby and think at the same time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I was reminded of this when, the other day, a journalist tweeted the following: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Back in the office after a week off. Emailed an academic with Q’s about their research paper – received a response within just a couple of hours: “Sorry for not getting back to you immediately, I had a baby today. In answer to your questions…” Wow. That’s job dedication!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rachael Pells (@RachaelPells) May 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n