Thread by @angryhacademic

this thread sums up #academia so well. i hated so much of it, but kept telling myself the 10 % i love (the research) made up for the 90 % of shit the majority of the time.

i delayed leaving because of that 10 %.

#AcademicTwitter #phdchat #ucuRISING

https://twitter.com/LauraJaneMayne/status/1596134293231009797

leaving required a sort of mourning (appreciate this sounds dramatic); i was losing my identity as an academic

my skills and knowledge are so specialised who would even want me anyway?

why would i even want to lose what i have? i have academic freedom after all!!

then my planned redundancy went ahead even though we were eligible for furlough. my next plans (to go to Sweden) fell through because of the plague.

there were no jobs. i stopped being an academic by force. i thought i'd be miserable.

but considering all the academic freedom i had, i suddenly felt...FREE!

i did my most creative work

i realised how gaslight-y the culture is

i realised the abuse is not ok and i can't handle it

i realised i wasn't a bad scientist

again, this sounds dramatic. academia gets real personal (and im not saying other jobs dont).

in ~3 months of my PhD i lost 25 % of my body weight (18 kg) cos i had to work work work lest i be a failure

during my MSc i had several mental breakdowns

during my #PhD i had several mental breakdowns

during my 2nd #postdoc i had several mental breakdowns

since then, ive had my life flipped upside down with chronic illness & not gone home for 3 years, and still NO mental breakdowns

i did a bit of MSc supervision last year and all the shittiness came flooding back. every step of it was shrouded in oppression and pointless rules that no one seems to realise are absurd

confirmed i need to stay away from the academy