When you are on the journey of being a doctoral scholar, your perspective towards holiday’s changes all together and you start looking at them little differently as compare to your perspective when you were undergraduate. As a doctoral students, here are few things you must know about holidays.
Holidays for you should be purely disassociated from stress of all types and give you the comfort of relaxation which is otherwise completely off from your grilling and challenging schedule
When you decide to visit relatives in your tenure as a doctoral scholar, you might find their attitude and approach towards you different and more poking than before. You may find them interfering in your work, whether passively or aggressively but surely intruding. Their objective primarily would be to know about your research and the new developments in your life. There are few tips and ideas that can help you to alleviate the feeling of frustration you may develop during such breaks, try to answer vaguely or in a way that you divert the attention more towards their work than yours.
The perfect holiday for a doctoral student would be at a place that can be completely relaxing and unwinding and away from issues and concerns, whether personal or professional that can disturb you or add on to your existing pressure. You may not get many such opportunities easily in your PhD time but it is a suggestion worth focussing on, that you must create opportunities for yourself and keep taking a break on high priority. This is all the more important when you are going through that “more stressing” phase of your course. When you have slogged yourself with submission and deadlines. Rejuvenating yourself with a short break would help you to gear up and start the new phase with more focus.
Some scholars are unfortunate to have supervisors that do not acknowledge their students to take even well-deserved breaks, they may try to make them feel guilty every time they would bring up the issue of moving away for a bit. Well I guess, you need to learn to find your way out here and don’t surrender. You must try and convince and cajole your supervisor about your needs and importance of moving out for a while, now whether you decide to face relatives and family or a lonely getaway for yourself is a choice you got to make!!