Why I’m Starting This Blog

Hi! There!

To be honest, I do not know how to run a blog or what to write here for the first time. I am not a person who loves writing (especially in a language that is not my mother tongue). However, I am the kind of person who enjoys sharing stories, learning new things, and particularly teaching. Yes, I like teaching, but not for the reasons you are thinking. I do not think it is a vocation. For me, teaching has been the way how I learned to learn, and it is my approach to learning something. Teaching is a win-win! I learn, and somebody learns, too!

So, here, I will try to teach what I am learning. My quals are coming in August, I need to process thousand of information in the next months, and the only way I know is teaching, sharing it! So, following my favorite scientist’s (Richard Feynman) words: “If you want to master something, teach it.” That is my purpose. I want to master my exam topics, so I will use this media to share my process.

Who am I? Because there is a person behind this work

My name is Leidy Viviana Romero Alarcon; everybody calls me Viviana except my family. For a while, I hated Leidy because it is a bad spelling of ‘Lady’ in English. However, I made peace with my first name after starting college and discovering about Joseph Leidy, one of the most prolific paleontologists and anatomists of the 19th century. I love paleontology and vertebrate comparative anatomy, so I start to tolerate my first name. At this point, I do not care if people call me Viviana or Leidy, but I prefer Viviana. But you are welcome to use either.

Well, I am from a small city in Colombia, Bucaramanga. My education has been 100% from public schools, from elementary school to my PhD (and I am so proud of that). Of course, It has not been easy, but I am here against all probabilities.

Nowadays, I am a PhD student at The University of Massachusetts in Boston. I have met beutiful people, the city is amazing and summer and falls are the best. Not to mention before that this university and my PI gave me a wonderful opportunity to continue my academic studies and overcome my frustration with the “English language.” Finally, I cand ask for a coffee in a restaurant without getting frozen in the process. XD Thus, I have reached my second year here, with ups and downs but, in general, “Sabroso pero doloroso”.

Regarding my researching, uff I don’t know yet what will actually be my dissertation topic. There are tons of wonderful questions to answer, but most will demand more time than I have available. For the time being, I am preparing my quals and trying to optimize my life. Time is the limiting factor! (And money)

📝 To practice writing

English is not my first language as you noticed before, and the first session of my quals is a written exam. No internet connection, no corrector, just me and a basic text editor! That is a nightmare, and makes me feel anxious (Although, almost everything here makes me feel anxious).

So, I would like to feel comfortable writing, expressing complex idea clearly and naturally. I hope getting better writing regularly in a low-pressure practice. So, I see this blog as a good way to grow up. (And aprove my exam)

🎯 To stay focused and accountable

It is a mental need organize my ideas and stay on track. Therefore, it is the best way to track my progress and post what I am learning. If I can explain it in an easy way, I will be sure I understand it. Or I guess so.

🔍 To make the process transparent

Part of the material I was given to study concerns reproducibility in science. @Danielhaehn, the author of The Seven Levels of Open Science, argues that we should share our process from the beginning, and that is what I am trying to do. Although this blog is not the beginning of my research, it could trigger ideas that will develop into formal research in my PhD.

At the same time, preparing for quals makes me feel overwhelming. So, this blog might help someone else going through a similar process or even just spark a conversation.

💡 To build a habit

A critical skill in science is WRITING. I am the person who used to think that it is easier for some than others. But after having read a lot of things about “How to improve your writing,” I made the conclusion that they have one argument in common: “If you want to master writing you should write.”

Although this sounds like a trivial statement, I did not understand its power until I faced the reality that I will take a written exam without any helper. In this moment, no matter how many books I have read about the topic, or podcasts I have listened to or YouTube videos I have watched — if I want to master scientific writing, I took the wrong way. I have done everything except writing.

In this moment writing this post, I understand my PI’s words when one day I arrived in his office and I said — I need to learn writing. To which he replied — then you should write. I remember I left the office pretty disappointed because I did not understand the power of his words.

So, this is my purpose and I hope to keep standing with my objective for a long time. I need to build better habits not just for this exam, but for my life as a researcher.

(So, one advice you did not ask: “Listen to your PI”, even when you do not want XD)

To sum up, I’ll be posting summaries of what I study, notes on tricky concepts, thoughts on the readings (like Phylogenetics, Evolution, Code and Deep Learning), and whatever else I discover along the way.

Thanks for reading! 🌱

Let’s see where this goes.

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