Family…
My sister had a heart surgery today, scheduled at the last minute (was supposed to be next week). Things went well, and I’m glad I could be there. I was looking forward to talking about where I am in my trajectory at school, and getting feedback my colleagues in my Policy Implementation Research Group. But I needed to be there for my sister, felt I had to postpone my own stuff. And it makes me think about the future, having kids, a family of my own. When work is structured independently, as so much of grad school is (an many jobs a Ph.D. leads into), and you guilt trip yourself so much about not getting work done, it can be hard to strike the right balance with being there when needed for family… It’s not the same as taking off from the office, when it feels like the responsibility can be left at your desk. It’s always there with you.
What will this be like with my own children? How will I strike the right balance between work and family? I don’t want to not be able to put work down when needed, but I also don’t want work to suffer too much.
This weekend, I’m going to get a lot of work done. Big plans! The weather is supposed to be almost 80 degrees (in San Francisco! in April!), so we’ll for sure go on a bike ride and perhaps a good run. But the rest of the time I’m going to focus on catching up on work.