Half way there and livin on a prayer

Alarm.  SMACK!  It's 7:10 am.  I turn on the lights and stumble out of bed.  For some reason the air is heavy and it seems darker than usual outside.  Some primitive sense of foreboding has already taken hold of the day and it's only 7:12 am.  As I walk out of my room, the shelf full of random whittled mementos from past camping trips catches my eye.

Maybe I could just live in the forest permanently?  Yes.  Perfect.  Then I could whittle and chop wood every single day and I wouldn't have to go to work at all.  I would build multiple shelves to hold all of my 'creations' and a log cabin to provide shelter in the winter and...As my brain wakes up a bit it chastises me with unassailable logic.  "Get ahold of yourself man!  You could never grow the necessary beard to make that plan work!".  Defeated, I begrudgingly move on to the kitchen but decide not to shave that day in quiet protest.  I eat breakfast, make my lunch, and hop on my bike to ride to work.

A couple of kilometers along I feel an unusual weariness in my legs.  I must be going slower than usual. "I should buy a faster bike!", I think to myself.  I come to a stop at some traffic lights just as a stunningly attractive, but slightly younger, girl cycles past in the other direction.  The light turns, and my mind shifts gears as quickly as the car trying to speed past me off the line.  "Maybe I should ask out one of the new grad students in the department!  No, no, no, wait a minute.  Better get a faster bike first!"

Finally I arrive at the office.  By this time my brain has fully awakened and it starts to plan out the day's endeavours.  Absently it takes notice of the date.  Uh oh.  The feeling of foreboding comes on with full force.  I knew there was something wrong with today!  It's exactly 2 years since I started my PhD.  I am supposed to be half done but I don't have anything!  Nothing thesis-worthy in the last two years!!!  Suddenly the morning began to make sense.  The escapism.  The desire to purchase a faster "vehicle".  The thoughts of dating a younger grad student. It could mean only one thing...

Of milestones and manuscripts

Lectures, lectures, assignments, lectures, mid-terms, lectures, assignments, lectures, finals, finals, GRADES, GRADES!  

Lectures, lectures, assignments, lectures, mid-terms, lectures, assignments, lectures, finals, finals, GRADES, GRADES!  

Badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers badgers…

Oh the sweet predictable embrace of undergrad!  Sometimes I miss you!

Anthony - "Tell me I'm good! And smart! And doing all the right things in life!"

University - "Well Anthony, here are your grades this term.  You're dreadful at stats, but your average is respectable.  Thumbs up buddy!"

Anthony - "Thanks friend!"

Of course undergrad was never this easy.  Though I’ve tried to block them all out, I can still recall many nights working on assignments that ended with me rocking back and forth in the fetal position wrought with existential angst and a growing inferiority complex (the early warning signs of a future grad student?).  

However, a key challenge in graduate school is the transition to an entirely new milestone and reward structure.  In undergrad, milestones are laid out for you.  Everything is modular and progression (or lack thereof) is usually pretty clear when you receive grades at the end of each term.  You never go more than a couple of months without being provided with some sort of external validation.  High grades are the reward for your hard work and dedication.  

So what is the milestone and reward structure in a research oriented graduate program? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Gone drinkin?

One of the many fantastic things about grad school is that the undergrad party spirit lives on!  Parties for holidays both real and made up, get togethers for successful defenses, Thursday night 'box socials'.  In addition, as R. Black, one of the great lyricists and philosophers of our time once said,

It's Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend!

To top it all off, according to Miss Black, Saturday comes after Friday!?!  Damn, how are we ever going to keep up with all of this without going broke?

As mentioned in the first post, this blog is about both happiness and wealth so here is the first post on actually saving some coin!  Below are four of my favourite strategies for keeping the good times rollin without breaking the bank!

Battling an old instinct with a new habit

You struggle to temper your breathing as you remain out of sight in some brush beside a clearing in the forest.  Your heart beats like a drum.  You strain to be hyper aware of everything around you all at once as you await a sign from another member of your tribe.  Failure is not an option.  Winter is coming.  Everyone depends on this hunt.  One false move and it’s a quick painful death for you or a slow painful death for everyone.

FLASH! Suddenly you are transported many hundreds of thousands of years forward (actually around a million by most estimates) to approximately 10000 BC.  You look out upon a sad patch of wilted crops.  “This was such a good idea last year” you think to yourself.  “If we don’t get some rain soon we may have nothing to eat at all.  If only we had followed that herd and spent our time hunting instead of staying put...”

FLASH! Fast-forward just over a paltry eleven thousand years to 1347 AD.  Over a third of everyone you know in the city has died and more get sick every day.  The doctor said something about “bad air.”  You start to panic as you realize the room feels stuffy. You quickly open all the shutters and think about how you can’t afford any incense.

FLASH!  Six-hundred and sixty-six* years later and over a million years from whence you began, you’re finally back at your desk.  You breathe a sigh of relief, but grow a little agitated as you remember that the blog post you’re reading is supposed to be about ‘wealth’ and happiness in grad school.

There is no doubt about it - humans have been struggling to survive throughout our entire evolutionary history.  The survival instinct has been hard-wired into our brains. But we do not survive by running quickly or fighting fiercely.  We survive because we have developed a keen ability to anticipate what could go wrong, identify what is missing, and seek out appropriate solutions.