Relieve Graduate School Stress with Four Lessons from The Well-Ordered Mind’s New Mascot

A lot of silliness and a bit of botanical wisdom.

The start of the academic year can be a stressful time for graduate students. New classes, new projects, new deadlines. So today, The Well-Ordered Blog is going to take a break from graduate school productivity tips to introduce our new mascot, Walter, the Well-Ordered Cactus.

You may think a cactus was a random (and perhaps odd) choice for a graduate school success mascot, but Walter and his cactaceae relatives actually have a few good points (get it?) to make about success in graduate school.

Survival in Adverse Conditions

A cactus is a plant that can survive in exceptionally harsh environments. For example, I have whatever is the opposite of a green thumb. (I guess on the color wheel, that would be red.) In our house, I am forbidden to even look at most of the plants, lest my anti-botanical vibes cause them to turn brown and wither. And I did once kill a cactus. But only once, and it took me close to 40 years to do it.

So, cacti are tough and resilient. So are graduate students. Is a professor demanding extensive revisions on a paper? Are you struggling to locate that vital primary source text? Was your thesis proposal greeted with barely lukewarm enthusiasm? If a cactus can survive in the Atacama, you can survive the vicissitudes of grad school.

Impressive Storage Capacity

A cactus can store enormous amounts of water. A grown saguaro cactus (which Walter is not) can store up to 200 gallons of water from a single rainstorm. A small cactus can maybe store a few gallons. I actually have no idea how much, but probably a lot.

Just as a cactus stores water, a graduate student stores enormous amounts of information – in your brain, your notes, your hard drive, your file cabinet, the cloud. Having a good information storage and retrieval system is an essential part of grad school.

Self-Protective Strategies

The spines on a cactus have several functions. They provide shade and help with photosynthesis and water retention. But an obvious function of the prickles is self-protection.

Like a cactus protects itself from predators, as a graduate student, you need to protect yourself. Mostly, you need to protect yourself from time-sucking activities that are neither important nor urgent. You need to protect yourself from mindless distractions and unreasonable demands. And sometimes you need to protect yourself from your own fears or other people’s unfair criticism.

I’m not saying be prickly and unapproachable – just be wise and keep your focus on the goal.

Beautiful Results

Finally, a cactus like Walter will, when mature, once or twice a summer, produce flowers. The endurance and resilience pay off in a burst of beauty.

And because graduate students are smart, I don’t need to belabor the comparison here. Your work will pay off.

All silliness aside, graduate school can be challenging! For help navigating your academic journey, click below to set up a free consultation with The Well-Ordered Mind.