Speaker 1: Thank you for checking out this video. My name is Arielle. I'm the founder of Gradlife Grind. I'm so happy that you decided to check this video out about how I'm able to travel quite a bit as a graduate student and still maintain a pretty high GPA. What you're about to watch is actually a selection of clips from an Instagram live that I did on this topic, so I really hope that you enjoy it, and if you have any questions, I hope you'll leave a comment. Thanks. So what I'm going to do is first I'll talk about what I think you need to do, tips I have for you if you are hoping to travel more as a graduate student, or if you are about to start grad school and you're worried about how you're going to be able to travel or just make time for having fun as a grad student. I'll give you some of the tips that I think have been helpful for me, and then I can talk a little bit about the places that I've traveled, how I was able to do that, and manage work. Like I said, I traveled to I believe eight places. They weren't all different places, but this year alone I've traveled quite a bit and I still was able to maintain a 3.86 GPA, which is pretty good for a PhD student, and I found that there are a few things that have made this possible. So if you want to travel as a graduate student, I think the first thing that you need to do is give yourself permission to take breaks. So when I first started graduate school, I really let my friends and family know that they weren't going to really hear from me. I was going to be doing grad school stuff all the time. I wasn't going to be able to be answering phone calls or maybe wouldn't be able to travel home for the holidays as much, and I might not be as available because my priority was going to be school. And my priority is school, but I've found that I've been able to balance a lot better than I thought. I really didn't imagine that I would ever have time for anything. Grad programs, well doctoral programs tend to be full-time. Master's programs may vary, but doctoral programs really require more than a full-time job. So I did the math not too long ago and my grad program requires more than 40 hours a week from me, and that makes it kind of crazy that I was able to travel as much as I did. So I think if you're like, how did you travel so much? What do you mean? How is that possible? You need to give yourself permission to take a break because I was able to do that because I was like, I deserve this. And even if it's just a weekend, even if it's a few days, I deserve to take this break and it's going to be okay if I don't touch my computer for three or four days. The work is going to get done. People are not going to be disappointed in me. Things are going to be fine. And I think that's the mental shift that I had to make from first year to now. Starting my program, I was like, nothing is more important than grad school. And with a few exceptions, I did have certain kind of boundaries or policies for myself where I was like, okay, if a friend or family member needs me, I would much rather get a B on something than not be there for them. But in terms of distributing my time, I was like, school is everything. But I think that we have to understand that our idea that we need to be working all the time is internalized capitalism. You were not born dictating your worth off of how much work you do. It's something that you hear over and over through media, through supervisors, through school, all over the place. You're hearing how much money do you make? What do you do for work? The fact that when we meet someone for the first time, one of the most common questions is like, so what do you do? And that means, what do you do for work? That really dictates, that really informs how we look at people's value. That if you have a certain job, you're more important than somebody who has a different type of job. So it's been easier for me to take breaks because I'm like, oh, I'm not just a grad student. If I'm only a grad student, then I should be only doing grad school things. But when I implement, when I integrate all these other parts of my identity, I'm like, oh, I do deserve a break. Oh, I do deserve to have fun. Oh, I do deserve to work on this hobby that I enjoy. So traveling comes with a mindset shift. And even if you're not traveling, like if you don't have the means to go somewhere and you just are wanting to spend less time doing grad school things, I think that that mindset shift of I deserve this, even if you have to literally write down like, permission slip to take a break today, do that. And that was the first thing that I think was helpful. The other is that I want to give like a kind of disclaimer, like, yes, I traveled quite a bit this year. Some of those trips were necessary, like I had to make it to certain family events or one of my friends just got married. So like, yes, it was for fun, but it was also like, I have a kind of obligation to be there for my friends or family in a positive way, like I want to go. But it wasn't all just like, I'm just taking vacations left and right. And I was just having this conversation with somebody that there's a difference between a vacation and a trip. So vacation is you're going to relax, or you're going to have fun. And like it is the intention is that you're on a vacation. And then there are trips. So you are going to a different place, it may or may not be for pleasure. Going away somewhere for a conference is work, but it's a trip. So I went to New York a lot of times, if you saw my Instagram story, I listed all the places where I went the other day. And New York came up like three or four times, I think I went to New York, which is where I'm originally from. In March, in May, I went two times for two different family events. And then I just went again, in August. So I think four times, maybe one more time. So not all these trips are vacations. And a lot of these trips were really quick. So some of them were literally like, at least one of these trips, I was in New York for less than 48 hours, like I think I spent more time on the plane than I did actually there. So some of those trips weren't all that fun. You know, like I went and I enjoyed an event. I enjoyed time with friends and family. And then I rushed back and I was exhausted and I was drained. So not all these trips were vacations. To be fair, I think you see that and you're like, Oh my god, how did she do it? And it's like, I don't even know how I did it because I had to recover when I got back from all these things. But most of those trips were either weekend trips, or literally super quick trips. So I think maybe only two or three of them were longer. So I know that the first time, let's just go in order. So in February, I went to Palm Springs. And that was for a friend's birthday. It was a weekend trip. We drove, which was very long. And I had an amazing time. But I wasn't missing school or anything. I think that there was like maybe one meeting that I didn't go to. But I didn't have like it wasn't getting in the way of anything. And I'm pretty sure that I worked while I was there. So the other thing is like when you're thinking about how did you travel, like a lot of the times I take things with me to read on the plane or I'm working on Grad Life Grind content on the plane. So for me, that's a break because I'm not like sitting in the same space. I'm not on Zoom the whole time. I'm working from somewhere different. And that sometimes feels like a vacation for me in some way. But I just kind of made peace also as a grad student that like my vacations are going to look different than someone who works a full time job and gets like PTO. So when I did work PTO, I could take a week off and go somewhere and like not think about work for an extended period of time. The second mindset shift that I think is important is that vacations are going to look different now when you're in graduate school. That may not always be the case. But I think that's a way that I've kind of made it possible where I'm like, oh, I can take a weekend trip. And for some people a weekend isn't worth it. And that's fine if that's the case for you. For me, it's like, yeah, if a friend wants to go on a quick weekend trip here or there, like I'm in. But it normally involves missing meetings, missing certain things. That's the other thing that you need to give yourself permission to do. Like, is it okay to miss a class? Is it okay for you to miss your lab meeting? And it may be certain parts of the year, it's not. Certain times in the year, you may not be able to miss anything. But in undergrad, you used to get like three unexcused absences or something like that. So that's not the case in grad school. You can't miss class that much. You can't miss things as often. But you still can find a little room where it's like, oh, well, if maybe I missed my meeting on Friday, I can take a flight that day and then be back Sunday evening and I'll be back in business on Monday. And that means that I didn't travel anywhere outside of the country, right? I would have needed more time to do that. So kind of shifting what it means to, what does a vacation look like? And is it always a vacation? Like, what is the purpose of this trip? Am I going to be traveling to do something in particular, like attend an event, a wedding, etc.? Or am I really going to go and like relax? Because if that's the case, then you might not want to bring work with you, but for the latter you, for the former you could. Then in March, I had spring break. So I was able to do two trips. One was to Denver. I did a solo weekend trip to Denver. I felt like that was adequate because I was by myself and I was only doing whatever was walkable within Denver. It was important for me to do a solo trip for the first time. And I think that I was able to do everything that I wanted to do in that time. And it wasn't that long of a flight either. So that worked out well. And I was on break, so I didn't have to worry about not doing work or anything like that. One of the, that was one of the times that I was doing readings and doing stuff on the plane. Then once I was back from Denver, I went to New York for my friend's birthday, but I actually went for an extended time. I think I went for five or six days so that I could see family and friends and do all kinds of stuff. So that felt more like a vacation. I don't think that I worked on that trip. And I was on spring break, so I didn't have to miss anything and it wasn't going to impact my grades or like my clients or anything like that. In May, I went to LA on a short girls trip with some friends. That was also a weekend, super quick. That was really fun, but it flies by. And LA is easy for me because I'm already in California, so that's a quick trip. And if you'll notice, a lot of the trips I took were short or like somewhere in California or not that far away. Whenever I go to New York, I'm going from one coast to another. Those trips are tiring and I try to stay longer than a few days so that I can actually enjoy it. But yeah, so I went on a girls trip in May to LA for a weekend. It's like a few hours of a flight, so that was easy to do. I think I did do work at the airport. I was submitting an assignment and then I was like, okay, it's Friday evening, I'm submitting this assignment and now I can go on this trip and enjoy myself and I'll be back to work on Monday. And also in May, I went to New York twice. Like I said, that was for family events, like I had functions to be at that were planned far in advance. Those were trips that were not all that relaxing for me because like I said, I spent the majority of the time actually on the plane just trying to get where I was going. And those weren't trips that were going to be like me laying on a beach and relaxing. I was just going to be there, right? To be there for my friends and family. Also trips during which I plan to do work on the plane and so I would bring articles with me. I bring my laptop everywhere I go. However, I think that there was so much happening at that time that even though I planned to do work on the plane, the majority of the time I would just sleep and I was just like, my body just needs this right now. And that meant that when I got back, I had to catch up and that might be a little bit stressful. I feel oftentimes like I have to recover from some of the trips that I take because they may not be relaxing vacation trips. They may be for some specific purpose or they are really fun trips, but they're just so quick and like traveling, really being on planes and stuff really drains me. So I did that. So that was May. In May, I traveled to three different places, which sounds really wonderful, but I was pretty tired by the end of May. I was like, I need a break. In June, I don't think I went anywhere. In July, I went to Hawaii for five days and it was incredible. That was a trip that was for relaxation purposes and if you've been following me for a long enough time, you would have seen that I was planning to work on that trip and I was going to have to do a meeting at like 7 a.m. on one of the days and I just texted my advisor and was like, can I just not? Like, I would rather not. And she was like, don't worry about it. Enjoy the island. And I was able to really just unplug. I think I did take my laptop with me, but I didn't end up doing any work and I was barely posting on Grad Life Grind. And then that was fabulous. That was a vacation, not like a trip to go and do something. And it was longer. So you'll notice that like if I'm just doing something, if I'm just going somewhere quick or I'm going somewhere for a specific event, it'll be really short. But if I'm actually going on a vacation, it'll be a bit longer. So that was amazing. And then just recently, I went to New York again for a wedding and then I went to Miami on a girl's trip. And in between and in both of those, I was able to see family and other friends. But those were kind of like a mix between vacation and not vacation. So like a mix between vacation and trip. So obviously I was going to New York for a wedding. That meant that it was like go, go, go. But I was able to add a couple of days here and there so that I could spend time with friends and like kind of relax, spend time with family. In Florida, it felt really go, go, go because we had like a full itinerary and all the girls had like things that they want to do. But we got to lay out on the beach and then eat, drink, dance, like have a good time. But if you've been on a girl's trip, you know that it can be kind of exhausting. So for the past week, I've just been recovering from that. Because like I said, it drains me to go to the East Coast and come back because the trip is long. So those are all the trips that I've been able to take. And I think the ways that I've been able to not have it interfere with my school performance or with my like academic stuff is one, allowing myself to take a break, but also preparing for that break. So if I know that I'm going to travel, that means getting certain work done beforehand and then prioritizing it or prioritizing and then getting the work done. So deciding like what needs to get done before I go and what things can I do like while I'm gone, like reading and what things do I need to like put on the top of my list when I get back. So those are the things that have been helpful. Also the planning, the timing of these trips. So the two longer trips that I took to Hawaii and to New York were during breaks. What made it easier to travel this year in general was that everything was remote. So any meetings that I had, even if I was taking meetings in a different city, I was taking everything on Zoom. And that gave me the flexibility to be anywhere, which is really nice. When I have clients in person, obviously I have to be here. And the other piece of it is the weekend trips. So in terms of timing, taking trips on the weekends so that I'm not really interfering with any meetings anyway, but that comes at a cost, right? Because you're super tired. Like you didn't really spend the whole weekend wherever you traveled. You spent maybe a day wherever you traveled because you were getting there for the majority of the time or for a lot of the time. So it's not as glamorous as it may have appeared. One question that I did see come up a lot was like, how did I afford to take all these trips? And that's an excellent question. There's a few different ways. Number one is my program is private. And so I pay for the program with loans. And I also pay for my living expenses with loans. And sometimes when I have extra money here and there, I can scrape together some money to take trips. The other is that when I'm traveling home to see my family, they will sometimes help me pay for my trips. And that's a huge privilege and a blessing that if I'm going home for Thanksgiving or something, I can help. I can rely on my parents' help to pay for that trip. The other is that your girl has savings. So even though I'm a full-time graduate student, I run a small business and I have other ways that I choose to earn money as I can. And that allows for me to do fun things. Even when I don't go out of state or too far away, sometimes I'm able to take short day trips and things like that because I manage my time in such a way that I can do that. And I also have some extra money here and there, but cost is a huge barrier to travel. I don't have any magical answer for you as to how you can afford trips. Obviously, planning things in advance makes flights cheaper, et cetera. But I don't have any tea for you on how I was able to afford so many trips. I just, um, in some cases, like for events, like my trips were really expensive because I had to like make it to something at a certain date and I needed to book sometimes things at the last minute because family needed me to be somewhere. And sometimes those trips are really damn expensive and I eventually paid them off. So it really depends. But when you do live off of loans, there's two types of people. There are the type of people that are like, Oh my God, I want to spend as little money as possible because these loans are crazy. And I was that person for a while. And then there are people that are like, these loans are going to be there for a minute. So I'm just going to do what I want to do. And I'm slowly kind of, I go back and forth between both of those. Sometimes I'm like, I have a lot of debt because I'm getting this degree. I might as well enjoy myself. And then other times I'm like, Oh my God, this is so much debt. I shouldn't be blowing money. And at the same time, like I talked about for the first couple of minutes of this video, I need breaks. And so if I want to take a trip so that I can have a mental break or so that I can connect with loved ones, I'm going to do it if it's within my means, as long as it's not going to be detrimental to me financially. So that's kind of how I've been able to manage that. And then workload depends, bringing things with me, planning things accordingly has worked out really nicely. But that's basically my spiel on traveling. I think that if you're a graduate student and you're hoping to travel or just have more fun, I think the first thing that you need to do to recap is to shift your mindset into the fact that you deserve to take breaks. The other thing that you need to do is figure out what's within your means in terms of travel. So can you travel on a plane? Can you only do road trips? How long can you go away and can you go away during the week or does it only have to be weekend trips? How often can you go away so that it's actually fun for you and not exhausting? So personally I've noticed that short trips too frequently can be kind of tiring and then it's not fun anymore. So figuring out for yourself like when can I travel? How often can I travel? How would I get where I'm going? And then do I want to slash can I disconnect from work during those times or am I going to bring work with me and is that something that I'm okay with? So there's a lot to figure out and there are a lot of different ways to implement travel into your life as a graduate student but I will say that all of this can change pretty soon as things start to open back up. So right now it's easier to travel with everything being online. That's not going to be the case forever. So if you are considering traveling let's say in the fall semester or fall quarter, that may be doable right now. Things might look really different a year from now. So that's everything that I had to say about traveling as a graduate student. I hope that you found this video helpful. My goal is to inform you, to inspire you, to spark an interest in you, and hopefully also entertain you. So I hope you'll be back soon. Take care.