Editorial - Struggle

Hello Dear Reader, and welcome to Issue 12 of Consilience.

While sharing the research experiences that kept us up at night, one of our editors recalled a pivotal experience during her PhD. 

It was a time of trying, failing, and struggling to get some part -any part- of their research to work. The experiment was supposed to take 3 weeks, but after months of trying and failing, the light at the end of the tunnel still seemed far. She felt alone, not wanting to burden others busy with their own work, their own struggles. 

Late one night, a fellow graduate student came into the lab saying, “I heard you were still here and was called to either help or ‘encourage’ you to go home.” She tried to reason that she didn’t need help when, in fact, she had been catastrophising that she would never get her experiment across the finish line.

When the other student pushed, she relented, feeling grateful and overwhelmed. She felt like she was drowning. 

She confesses that there were tears, though her peer sat patiently. Once she settled, he said that no one truly has ever done something alone. There’s always someone there that’s facilitating success, directly or indirectly. Everyone needs help. 

“You can always ask for help; everyone needs help. No one does or has done anything alone.”

Struggle is inevitable. Struggling alone shouldn’t be. 

Shared experiences bring people together. Camaraderie is strong in our scientific and poetry communities because mutual triumph over struggle creates lasting bonds.

Because these experiences of struggle are ones that we all endure and share in our own ways, we are excited to present this issue of Consilience.

The Consilience Team