It's Duck Day!

By Gabbi Figueroa

I tend to characterize myself as a person who wants to appreciate everyday aspects of life and celebrate whenever I can. I do not want to let life, or this doctoral journey, pass me by without my appreciation and gratitude for every experience.

Last semester, I started a tradition for me and my team of research assistants to remember each semester by. With us being the Yellow Team in our lab, naturally, I saw it fitting for this tradition to consist of yellow rubber ducks with funky fun attire and unique facial personalities. So, at the end of these past two semesters and each semester to come, during our team meeting I stand up and talk about how the rubber duck they decide to choose represents their journey as a research assistant. The duck will hold memories of their journey including their struggles, triumphs, and hurdles they overcame. This duck they choose also represents my pride in them and the growth they have demonstrated over the course of the semester most often in their confidence, research breadth, and interpersonal skills needed to conduct social psychological research.

It is no surprise that I chose rubber ducks as the novelty gift of choice for me and my research assistants. In high school I was nominated for a kindness award that consisted of a bunch of funky dressed ducks which I enjoyed so much. I would arrange them on my desk with pride and then share them with my friends as gifts. Rubber ducks represent joy, progress, kindness, and whimsy to me. I love being able to share that with my students.

I feel ecstatic that I was able to make a tradition for my research assistants that we all can look forward to every semester. In fact, my research assistants from last semester remembered duck day was coming and were so happy when I pulled out the box of rubber ducks to start my proud mama bird speech. It is difficult to begin expressing the joy I felt giving them their rubber duck and seeing their joy from choosing their favorite duck out of the bunch. Getting to collect 10 rubber ducks while at Texas A&M instills a strong sense of pride and hope. Each duck represents a semester of my doctoral journey, and I love the symbolism in that. If you can find tangible ways to mark your progress, I bet that you will thank your past self for knowing the kind of joyous memories you will want to look back on fondly. Even as a first year, I love seeing my 2 rubber ducks sitting on my desk waiting to be joined as each semester rolls along.

What is one way you are tangibly marking your doctoral journey? If you don’t have one, what is one you would want to start?