Salut l’ami!
Let me begin this story from one moment when my friend said to me “Your master study seems so easy and happy, is it really that easy? Share please your struggles during this study period if there is one!”
Well, for sure, there is literally a lot of struggle during the first semester of my master’s study. The struggle is real! But it doesn’t it’s impossible to solve, I can say, need perseverance and encouragement to overcome each struggle that I mentioned thereafter based on its timing.
1. Stress with the totally different approaches between academics and work
The first struggle which I immediately realized after 2 weeks of the first semester was difficulty in myself to change my mindset, which is from a practical approach with a theoretical approach, which was extremely stressful at that moment. I am already accustomed to the practical mindset after working for 2 years. it can be said that I was shocked to return to academia, which certainly, is very theoretical.
Is that really different? Is that stressful?
Yes, it is! The mindset in the world of work and academia is the opposite! Especially the approach and point of view in seeing a problem. In the world of work, when a problem occurs, the first thing to do is how to (practical) solve it, and then after the problem is resolved, then after we start looking for the root of the problem and the reason why (theory) the problem occurs. However, we don’t always have time to go deeper into the theoretical aspect, because most of the time it’s not really necessary to know the detail of the theory of the problem. Yet, the academic world has a different approach. Most of the time, it always starts with a theory, fundamental knowledge, and sometimes goes very deep into the details until sometimes we never have time to discuss the practical side of the theory.
This is the point that 100% stresses me out because somehow my mind refuses to delve deeper into a theory by always postulating “hey, theory without any real practical application is useless, you shouldn’t spend a lot of time going deeper in the theory “. And this thought also makes me miss (oath I miss badly) my job and my workplace! But at the end of the day, I managed to find the correlation of each theory described in the real-world application, which did take time to reach that phase.
“the world of work will shape our mindset to be practical, but academics will shape our mindset to be theoretical”
2. The language barrier does exist!
There was one moment my friend said, “get ready, maybe you will experience a language barrier during your master’s study”, and at that time I thought that this was a cliché. But ulala, these things do happen! We couldn’t expect our understanding is not our native language will be better than in our mother language. At the same time, it’s kinda stressful when your lecturer is not native English speakers as well, but the only language that you can use to communicate with each other is English!
I remember, there was a moment where I had a really hard time understanding 2 courses because I had never studied the subject before plus the fact that the lecturer’s English is not very fluent. I can say it feels like a “combo attack”, you don’t understand the terms and vocabulary and you don’t understand your lecturer’s English
3. Struggling to keep focus with all the online classes
Covid strikes! Yep, I only underwent 3 weeks of offline classes at the campus, before it’s moved into online classes because the covid cases in Poland rose dramatically. My impression? Oh my God, in the beginning, it was really “stressing! And the online class was a lot of temptation to not focus, for example, because you didn’t have to turn on your camera, so you could just be “present” but actually you were doing something else. I’ve tried to focus, online classes are not “as interactive” as offline classes, where you can show an expression that you don’t understand and your lecturer can understand it without you having to ask questions and of course you have lots of chances to interact with your classmates.
During the first month of my online classes, all I got was a bunch of headaches. Just stay in my room and almost a whole day only interact with a laptop or phone is somehow exhausting. Yet, thanks to God that at the end of the day I succeed to get used to it
4. Got 0 for an unofficial quiz
This incident, I can say, made my struggle reached its peak. Looks like at that time I really felt stupid, and couldn’t answer the exam questions at all! I didn’t even understand the questions! But I’m grateful that this moment made me realize that my learning method was wrong and that what I thought was enough was not at all! What’s more grateful is that this quiz was not counted towards the final score
5. There was a moment I felt that I chose the wrong master program.
This one was the most shocking, even for myself! Choose the wrong master program???!! Truly, it happens!
At that moment, for at least a week, I felt overwhelmed with my own thought that I made one big decision in my life that was “wrong”. This was suddenly because at that moment I did not understand, at all, what my lecturer explained in almost all the courses I was taking. And of course, I felt supeer supeer supeeeer stupid (the result of my unofficial quiz also like confirming that I am stupid). This struggle occurred almost at the same time as the first struggle, where I missed my previous world of work (as an R&D executive – food formulator engineer) and made me regret why I didn’t choose the FIPDes (Food Innovation and Product Design) program which is more in line with my last job (check about my scholarship story here) and I thought, maybe more “easy”.
Well, that sounds really tough, how you overcome it then?
First thing first, I always try to accept and embrace every single struggle that I’m dealing with a mindset that this is a “test” for me to step up to the next level. Why? Because the problem will not be solved when you be ignorant and run away from the problem. Second, I try to share my problems and thoughts with friends I trust for advice, and this 100% helps. Lastly, be patient and gentle with yourself because all problems will pass at the end of the day.
“Sometimes, all we need just time and patience to understand all the things that happen surround us. Yet after that, you can see the beauty of the thing that happens to you.”
Actually, there were many other struggles that I faced during the 1st semester, such as eye inflammation for 3 weeks, adaptation to teamwork, adaptation to weather that were completely different from my home country, etc. On the other hand, I’m also very grateful that I practically don’t feel the struggle that people usually feel when studying abroad, i.e. culture shock, homesickness, illness, social problems, making new friends, digestive problems and different diets, etc.
All of this is a fact, and it never as easy as it looks in what I usually update on Instagram. Yet, with all God’s blessing, I survive and pass all the courses even with marks above my expectation! And now, I am 100% in love with the topic of my master’s program!
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