What Were My Rough Beginnings in Nijmegen?

More of my doctoral journey, coming your way! One of the earliest challenges I encountered was the famous Dutch frugality. The lady who leased me a room didn’t follow through on renovations as promised.

Instead, I ended up with a smaller, old, dim, and musty room. And to top it off, she demanded full rent. 

The real kicker? The agency wasn’t interested in helping me either. So, while I should be focusing on my PhD project, I’m caught up in room hunting and agency visits, all in the span of a month before I must vacate the room.

Somehow, I have this gut feeling that I’ll navigate this situation and land something even better than I can imagine now. But for now, the problem-solving solution remains elusive.

What Was the Housing Situation Like?

Speaking of experiences, I took the Young MBA course at the Warsaw School of Economics some time ago. They taught us that when entering the market, your contractors’ bargaining position is as crucial as other factors like competition, market size, barriers to entry, and more. If your suppliers can dictate the prices due to a monopoly, you’re in a challenging spot. 

Apartments in Nijmegen are quite similar. According to Radboud University, Nijmegen is one of the Dutch student cities with the tightest housing market.

And the university itself cannot guarantee housing for all incoming students. With around 20,000 students at the local university, it’s like a henhouse where landlords, mostly old-fashioned Dutch landladies, set prices as they please.

How Do I Cope With It?

In times like these, two things come to mind. Firstly, the tough times you’ve faced in your upbringing can make an impressive story in your biography. According to Seery, Holman and Silver (2010), moderate adversity predicts greater resilience later in life.

Secondly, remembering the greats who once lived in less-than-ideal conditions before achieving success is inspiring. Reading biographies can be quite educational. According to Lockwood and Kunda (1997), relevant role models inspire when their success seems attainable. 

Take Brock Lesnar‘s biography, for example. It opened my eyes to a wealth of English words.

But back to the point—Brock Lesnar, for instance, lived in an attic with pigeons and their droppings due to homelessness. Others also have inspiring stories, particularly women dating younger men and men dating older women.

Overall, it’s no walk in the park here. Computational Neuroscience wasn’t a thing in Poland, and I’ve landed smack in the heart of European production in the field. It’s like listening to two foreign languages simultaneously, with both the language and content leaving me bewildered.

To keep up, I’m often the last to leave the lab. And I’ve taken to reading “Neurobiology on the Trail of Consciousness” by Christof Koch in the bathroom to save time. Interesting book, by the way.

Despite the challenges, and surprisingly, even the rain can’t dampen my spirits. My eating schedule has shifted, and I’ve lost weight as I have lunch at eleven. My days are jam-packed with classes and exams for the yMBA certificate.

I’m also working on my math publication during my free moments. It’s a tight schedule, considering my physics master’s and frequent travels to my boyfriend in Poland and back. Yet, something inside me assures me that despite the hardships, I’ve made the right choice.

Why Thelema?

Philosophically, I’m drifting towards Thelema, now recognized as a religion by UK authorities. It’s about following your true will, aligning with your talents and destiny. And understanding that suffering often comes from not pursuing your own path.

According to Deci and Ryan (2000), satisfying the basic psychological need for autonomy is closely tied to greater well-being. Pursuing goals that reflect one’s own values helps, while thwarted autonomy tends to undermine it.

Whenever I take a step back and say “it’ll work out somehow,” things tend to fall into place. On the flip side, when I stubbornly persist despite the signs, things can end in drama.

That’s why I stopped forcing an experimental project. Every sign told me it wasn’t meant to be. I was banging my head against the wall to join a research project.

But the hermetic nature of the field made it challenging to find an opportunity. Even when an American professor seemed to have an open offer, technical issues halted recruitment. So, I’ve embraced this new path and we’ll see where it leads.

The lab is competitive, and pushing myself is the name of the game. We all start somewhere, and my journey begins with finding a roof over my head.