It’s been a while since I last wrote an entry for Being Confused with Jean but recent interactions with a reader have inspired me to bring this series back 🙂 It is now leading up to the one-year anniversary of when I consider life to have gotten significantly harder – I have alluded to some of this in previous posts and the below quote pretty much summarises what the past 12 months have felt like. From falling in love with running and racing lots, travelling to some beautiful destinations, to a string of injuries and dealing with bereavement, I still feel like I’m somewhat recovering from it all. 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” – Charles Dickens. 

During this time, I went quiet online and had to spend a lot of time trying to help myself find more joy in life. I am currently in the final few months of my PhD (eek!) and I’m doing some really exciting work. I’m also working to try and plug any gaps in my data so that I will be in the best position possible to be working on my thesis in a few months’ time. 

In the meantime, I’m training for the London marathon which I somehow managed to get a place for! Marathon training started slightly over a month ago and I’ve also started to do karate a bit more again (I took a step back from it with the running, injuries and overall change in priorities with life.) 

I’ve spent a lot of time with the people I love, just doing the “smaller” things that I’ve always wanted to do – climb more, build strength, check out a specific coffee shop/restaurant, see the local area more. A lot of things are going on with the impending end of my PhD and return to medical school, but the two lessons I’ve learnt during this challenging period of my life are: 1) the close connections in my life are the reason why I managed to get through these tough times, and 2) hard work does pay off. For example, writing on here often feels like I’m speaking into a void but hearing recently that people find my posts helpful and that what I do has an impact of some sort was very valuable, it helps keep me going! 

I’m hoping to write more over the next few months and figure out what posts will look like as I draw an end to my PhD life. If there’s anything you’d like to see, let me know in the comments or get in touch using this form, you know that I like hearing from my readers!

Jean