My May Challenge

As seen on Twitter, I've decided to write a blog post every day this month. That's 31 posts.

I'm setting a goal to write a blog post everyday this month. I'm tweeting for accountability. Here is my first post recapping what I read or rather listened to in April (thanks @meetlibby) https://t.co/BOrZuxDYlN #blogging #whattoread

— Caitlyn Cardetti (@CaitlynCardetti) May 2, 2020

31 whole posts! Well I guess 29 now counting yestersday's "What I Read in April" and this one for today. But still 29 is plenty. What am I going to write about? I have no idea. But that is the point - I want to challenge myself.

I'm hoping that this challenge accomplishes a handful of things: a habit of blogging more frequently, trying out posts that I wouldn't deem "my style" which is silly since I'm definitely still working on finding "my style" for this blog, and hopefully blogging a bit more personally and by that I mean opening up and being more vulnerable.

I want to open up about my relationships - romantic, friendships, family and my mental health - which actually has been quite good lately. I think I have been holding back because what if they don't like what I write about them? What if my PI sees my blog and finds it a waste of my time aka time that could have been spent on my dissertation. I don't have the guise of anonymity on this blog. But even if I did would that make me feel any more secure writing about these topics? I am not sure. I guess to an extent yes because I do write about all of this in my private journal. But I don't need to care about how my writing affects other people's feelings there or what people would think of me. I don't know if anonymity would truly counteract those feelings. Anyway, I will try to be more vulnerable here. So why do I want to be more vulnerable? Anais Nin can best tell you why:
"If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it." - Anais Nin
I don't want to be just another blog discussing the surface of grad school - better productivity tips, how to pick your advisor, blah who cares. All that is out there somewhere and probably done better than I would. I want to get into the nitty gritty of me and my life because that is not out there. And that cannot be written by anyone but me.
And lastly,  I'd like to get better at the practice of writing in general. It's a skill I desperately need to complete my PhD and for my dream career in academia and also one that I'm definitely not great at ...yet. But I'm trying and I know with practice it will get better. I will get better. Like running I'm assuming it is more mental than anything else and if I can do that for running (although I haven't been much lately) I can do that for writing. What helped me run my first marathon was to train with a group so I'm adopting that for my writing which is why I joined a dissertation writing bootcamp at my uni - for accountability and camaraderie. My first session was yesterday and damn was it challenging! But helpful! While I failed to remain focus the entire four hours of writing (the bootcamp runs 1-5pm Fridays for 5 weeks), I did get some words down so I'll call that a success. And I learned what I need to do to prepare for next time, revisit the literature aka read more.

Comic courtesy of PhDComics

Are there any topics you'd like me to address during this challenge? Let me know in the comments below.