A Joint Experience

I gave birth to my son the summer between my Master’s and PhD at Stanford. So, in a sense, my son and my PhD are the same age. Both are two and a half years old now. My son started crawling around the same time I ran my first successful experiment in the lab. And when I celebrated passing my PhD qualifying exam, I also celebrated my son’s first birthday. As my son passed through several milestones between his infancy and toddlerhood, I too passed through my own. The two of us were growing at our own pace. And though this joint experience can sometimes be challenging – with unexpected illnesses, pressing deadlines and terrible twos – it’s also building resilience within me and teaching me new things everyday.

I am a PhD student, and as a mom I am a student too. I started this blog to document my journey, and to share what I’ve learned from motherhood and being in school, and occasionally from other experiences that left a footprint in my life. My hope is that, by reading my stories, some readers would find glimpses of their lives, and if I’m lucky, I’ll get to read about theirs too.