I am a DAAD PhD scholar at the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Botany (IZMB), University of Bonn, Germany. I had a slightly unconventional route towards my doctorate. After my master's, I worked for a year in the industry, tried my hands at science communication and then re-entered academia. Coming with some work experience, my perspective towards academia has shifted a lot, making this journey more challenging and rewarding at the same time. 
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As I enter the second year of my PhD, I thought, I should create some sort of a record of key events or happenings in my PhD journey, mainly as a history look up for my future self. But dear visitor/ reader/ friend, if at least a tiny part of this page strikes a chord within you, I would be happy as well.
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Reminiscing my first year
I joined the Pucker lab in 2024 for my PhD. I already did my master thesis in the same group, so I was already familiar with the group and my supervisor, which made my start a bit easy. Nevertheless, I had my own challenges to overcome. Being a vegetarian who spent most of my life in the southern coastal city of Chennai, I was so used to comforting home food and moderate climate. But the thoughts of having to cook my own food and battle the harsh German winters, created pangs of uncertainty and fear as I boarded my flight from Chennai. Although I was happy to return back to my group, and work in a research area that excited me, I cannot describe how sad I felt at the thought of having to leave home and family for the duration of my PhD.
 
With thousands of questions and doubts, I landed in Germany and took my train to the small city of Braunschweig, where I completed the initial 6 months of my PhD. I experienced living in an airbnb for the first time during this period until I found a room to stay. I would always remain thankful to my hosts, who made me feel at home during my stay at their place. The next few days were filled with activity, I submitted my first manuscript on a bioinformatics tool to estimate genome sizes to a journal, and began working on the next significant part of my PhD project. This time I managed to put up with the cold winters and also improved my cooking skills. Now I can confidently cook a simple Indian meal for myself and a few others too! As Christmas neared, I got a news about a health emergency in the family. I flew back home and it was an unplanned trip. In the end, by God's grace everything came back to normal and I got back to work. I even managed to attend a conference and present my work as a poster. The conference was held at the scenic town of Hennef, Germany, and I travelled bravely surviving the -3 degree celsius temperatures. I must give a pat on my back for this. Personally, this was a huge achievement for me! I must also mention about having got a dear friend in Braunschweig, a fellow DAAD scholar from Nepal, who stood with me through all my struggles, especially when I felt lonely or stressed out. It was friends like her, my lab mates and my supervisor, who made my time away from home, comfortable and joyful.
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After that, I had to deal with moving from Braunschweig to Bonn, as my group was moving to the University of Bonn. With a great deal of support from my colleagues and my supervisor, I moved to Bonn and got slowly adapted to the city. This was also a chaotic period filled with administrative stuff, navigating the city, submitting performance reports for my scholarship, and revising my manuscript to address reviewer comments. 
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The next phase was a bit celebratory with my manuscript being accepted and my scholarship being granted further. Following that, until now, it has been quite uneventful on the research front. Most of the days go in rewiring and reworking on my codes and repeating the data analysis for the nth time. Although, I used to get disheartened when I do not get results, now my attitude towards failure and negative results has slightly improved. On the whole, during my first year there were mostly moments of self-doubt, delusion, mixed equally with moments of 'ah I get it now', 'it is fine, I will get it in the next try'. So, I want my future self and anyone else reading this, to see that this journey is mine, I have a unique story, I have a unique path. I must not compare myself with anyone else, and I must take things into my stride to walk further. As I end my random musing about my first year, I am eagerly waiting to see how this journey of mine will unfold in the future ...