10 Great Things About Being a Graduate Student in the Summer

Being in graduate school can be tough – deadlines, professors, and experiments, can get you down.  But there are a lot of silver linings, too.   Here are a few of my favorite things about being a grad student this summer:

1. Since it stays light so much later, I don’t mind working a few more hours; there’s still plenty of time to enjoy the evening after getting home from the lab!
2. The farmers’ market is open down the street, so I can have a fresh lunch and get some grocery shopping done during the day.
3. Classes are out for the undergraduate students, which means a lot more elbow room on the campus shuttle and in the hallways.
4. Some of the undergraduates stay on as summer students in the lab – which means I’m not the youngest or newest lab member anymore!
5. The departmental seminar series take a break for a few months, leaving me a few extra hours every week for lab work.
6. Having a flexible work schedule means I’ll get to watch most of the World Cup games this month!
7. Summer sun means finally getting a little color to mask my “lab pallor”
8. The weather’s great now for running and exercising outside – no need to take extra time out of the day to head to the gym.
9. A few long weekends are a great opportunity to relax and recharge without having to ask for time off.
10. Senior graduate students are starting to defend their theses, providing some much-needed inspiration to keep going!

What’s your favorite part of being a scientist in the summer?