Is it okay to cry in front of my supervisors?

All-in on vulnerability!

This moment catapults me back in time to when I was doing my PhD… exciting and life-changing times for sure.

Why do I want to write about this moment? It is because it was a type of official turning point in my life & career, very emotional and meaningful. And also: because showing emotions and feelings is still something many people struggle with, I am also working on that myself.

Especially the crying part is tricky, even more so doing that when others witness it. It’s extra hard. And then imagine: in the middle of the world of academia, being a PhD student in her third year and standing in front of several professors, presenting her PhD progress, with the plan to share with them that I want to leave academia… yeah, maybe that makes the emotional part of it a bit more understandable :-)

But before I get to the moment, some other important things to write about: I have always been a bit different, let’s say, not a very stereotypical scientist or how many scientists are or become. To me it was always important to pay attention to the human-ness of our beings.

That means: data, numbers, logic, rationality and statistics is not everything. Not in Science and not in Humans. And because Humans do the actual Science, this interface and merger also allows for human-factors to occur. For me that means: emotions, feelings, life circumstances, social aspects, psychology, group behavior and communication.

In my case this would result in…