Posted on by davidegaglio

Life with a PhD

By Davide Gaglio

The minister said: … I now pronounce you husband and wife! What a happy moment!

Yes I am married! It was such a perfect day. (Listen this song while you reading the Blog): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYEC4TZsy-Y

“…Oh, it’s such a perfect day

I’m glad I spent it with you

Oh, such a perfect day

You just keep me hanging on

You just keep me hanging on”

We had such an amazing time, having shared it with our close family and friends who traveled from both far and near to be with us. As promised here some photos:

 

 

…and now still with these beautiful moments still stuck in my mind, with my heart full of joy and “amore” …now back in my office…in front of a pile of Excel files and R codes…

I have finished the majority of my field work, so lots of analysing data and writing up awaits me now… I am at the usual stage of every PhD student… asking myself Why? Why am I doing a PhD? Why have I embarked on this journey of constant challenges? Why have I allowed MS Word and printed papers to become such a big part of my life? Why? I was thinking a lot about the answer to these questions.

As mentioned in my previous entry, Matt Might explain a PhD like this; and the following picture shows the difference that my PhD will make to humanity 😦

blip

 

Well, my answer to this question is simpler than I thought and it’s not related to humanity…but to myself, and may be a little selfish. But I do it….to be happy!!!

Do you remember that feeling of happiness when you learned that you were accepted for a PhD program? How happy did you feel when you shared your experiences with other PhD students? Or when your first conference paper was accepted?… Yes, I am happy and grateful when I have the opportunity to share my experience, my vision, the results of my work with others. I feel grateful that there were PhD supervisors in the audience who listened to my perceptions as a PhD student. And you never know, it might have influenced their vision of a supervision process…at least a bit. And it means it might potentially change the life of other PhD students …

And yes the bigger picture…there is always a bigger picture behind your small limited piece of research… you just need to learn to see it. Looking back over the past few months, reading all my previous entry of my blog about my PhD, I can see that I have managed to progress my research considerably and have, indeed, learned much about my own life.

Thanks to my terns for making my job so magic!!! Yes…you are much better than penguins!

last pic

I would like to say goodbye with this sentence:

“Pursuing a PhD, is like beginning a journey… it’s always quite scary. But as you go along in the journey, the fear you had in the beginning becomes obsolete as you open yourself up to new challenges and experiences that change you forever.”

Posted on by davidegaglio

Rings are not only for birds…

By Davide Gaglio

Here we are again! I’m just back from the 2nd Seabird Conference…it was such a great experience! conference

It was literally “magic” when on the big screen of the auditorium we received a message from Jane Goodall.

And I really enjoyed the (quite funny) “Seabird (nerd) competition” during the final buffet!

I was very happy to be part of this magnificent event,

(you’ll see me from 8:35 – 8:55)

and good news, good news…I made to the top 10 of the best student talks!

Whooop whooop!!

Well, now it’s time to change the topic and get dressed… on the 28th of November I will be getting married!
Yes, you read correctly! You might ask… “getting married and finish a PhD in the same time????” Well… pursuing a PhD degree is not an easy way to go – at times you definitely just want to give up. To have someone accompany you on this difficult journey sounds like a great idea to me!

Some people have told me that having a spouse during a PhD distracts you from research. But I believe instead that, if you marry the right person, your research might even improve. PhD students decide to marry the same way every other human does, right?! Some choose to wait until they finish their degree to get married; others just after school; while some choose not to even think about relationships.

In some respects, getting married and pursing a PhD are ….same same…but DIFFERENT!!!

phdmarriage

Marriage has been a recurrent idea in my mind since I started my PhD, as I’ve been in love with my future wife for a long time…and we finally decided there is no reason for us to wait any longer.

Of course, I’m deliriously happy, but quite busy with only a few left weeks to go; we are ticking off the things that are needed to be done beforehand. Even though we are having a small ceremony, there is still quite some planning to do…. but luckily we have support from amazing friends and family, who are making the job very easy for us. It’s easy to get distracted with all the planning but we mustn’t forget the truth of the day. It’s one day of our lives when we get to share our love with family and all friends we have picked up along the way. It can only be filled with happiness. But not only that, it also represents the start of a whole new adventure ahead for us and that’s what we are both looking forward too.

Ok I promise I will show you some photos once I am back!…now I have to run and get a suit! ciao ciao.