Five things I did to cultivate joy after graduating with my Ph.D.
Pursuing a PhD is a huge decision and actually executing and finishing is a huge accomplishment. You sacrifice and suffer so much during the process that is almost seems no celebration is big enough for such an accomplishment. For me personally, I felt a little disconnected from what I was celebrating. Still, I pushed myself to really celebrate myself. Here are five things I did to cultivate joy after finishing my PhD.
#1. Moved to my dream city
I defended my dissertation in February and crossed the stage May 8. May 14th I moved to Atlanta, GA. Atlanta had been at the top of my list of places to move for several years after being in small, predominantly white towns. Atlanta has its pros and cons but moving has certainly had a remarkable effect on my overall happiness and mental health.
#2. Marked my new beginning with a big purchase
Far in advance of graduation I decided to mark my new beginning with getting a puppy. For me, it was a personal decision to celebrate myself by gifting myself something I have wanted for a really long time but did not have the stability to actually have (a dog). While I'm unsure of whether a puppy is fully a gift. My sweet Justice has definitely brought me joy and unconditionaly love since getting her. While a puppy may not be the right choice for everyone, graduating doc students should consider gifting themselves something that they would not receive from someone else or ordinarily purchase.
#3 Worked (more consistently) with a therapist
The process of pursuing and completing a PhD is traumatic to say the least. Even those who don't experience considerable trauma likely are leaving their institution a different person than they were when they entered. It may call for some processing at minimum to reintegrate who you are after your PhD with who you've always been. Depending on the culture of your university and program, the PhD process may have exposed you to others' values incessantly until you may unconsciously disconnect from why you wanted to pursue your degree and what you believe. A therapist can help you process and construct a plan for moving forward.
#4 Said yes to ease
For several years, I have been focused on creating a life of ease, peace, and joy. However, I began to live this out even more after completing my degree. Instead of focusing my decisions on what will bring me status, make other people happy, or come off as "politically correct", I got in tune with myself and my body through therapy. Doing so allowed me to more quickly make decisions based on mu own intuition without overthinking or over considering the opinions of other people. I found committing to a life of ease, peace, and joy to be much simpler than I ever expected. I found that this focus helped me to ride out the ebbs and flows of life as well.
#5 Reconnected with community and roots
As I've previously stated, the PhD process has a way of overexposing grad students to the values of white supremacy, the academy, society and other factors which usually are not the values of individual students. Somehow, through this process, we often lose connection with our original reason for being in the academy. Most Blackademics want to provide access to the higher education to the Black community and in most cases, to do that most efficiently, one must be positioned within the academy in roles such as professor or influential administrator. However, the process of getting the required credentials and experience to occupy those positions often detours students from their original community-oriented path or limits them from having all of the resources to open the doors for their community such that they begin to perpetuate the same harm onto other students or their future students that they experienced. All that to say, such as with pursuing therapy, spend some time with yourself by spending time remembering who you are. Now that you're Doctor, you no longer have the fear of possibly never finishing your program looming over nor are you still in survivor mode for the same reasons add the low pay. Therefore, you should have more capacity to explore how you reintegrate your full self for the future and pair all of the incredible theories and perspectives with who you've always been and the community you come from.
