Welcome to my first post! I finally gathered enough courage to start writing. Learn a little bit more about me and why I started this blog.

Hi there! If you’re reading this, you probably came across my website on Instagram, or you’re just a supportive (or nosy) friend checking to see what the heck I’m even doing with my blog. For now, the answer is that I’m not really sure. But, I’m proud of myself for finally starting, because this is something that I’ve toyed around with for a while.

With that said, let’s jump right into some basic facts about me:

My name is Emily Thoman and I am a 25 year old grad student and young professional living currently living in the Greater Boston Area. I was born in China, grew up in the Bay Area (Northern California, in case anyone is not familiar), and lived/worked in Seattle, WA for my gap year before moving to Boston for school, where I have been ever since.

I attended Boston University (BU) for both undergrad and grad, and will be starting my first year as a PhD student at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA in the Fall. During my time in grad school at BU, I worked full time with an educational non-profit and part time as a server, so budgeting and time management are two topics that I love to talk about.

Which leads me to why I started this blog.

As I mentioned before, this is something that I have thought about doing for a while. It was not until I started my PhD applications, however, that I realized I wished there were more people on the internet posting about how to apply to PhD programs. I found myself scouring the internet for any resources I could find. I jumped from Reddit thread to Reddit thread, scrolled through GradCafe forums, watched random YouTube videos, and asked my co-workers, friends, and professors for advice. While I definitely learned a lot, I started to notice that most online content is focused on the experience of STEM students. I wanted the tea on applying to humanities and social science programs, but found little in comparison to the hard sciences.

Furthermore, I rarely saw people who looked like me or had a similar story applying to the programs I was interested in. This has been, and continues to be, a recurring theme in my life. Yes, Asians (especially Eastern Asians) are often overrepresented in higher education spaces. This is a topic that I also like to discuss, but will save it for another post(s). But I almost never saw any in either of my programs at BU, or quite frankly, most of the jobs I’ve had up to this point. From what I gleaned from my visit to Brandeis, and from talking to some current students, there are also not a lot of students like me pursuing the same concentration that I am.

Hence, we have arrived at the general theme I will be trying out with my blog: figuring it out.

It was a phrase that I added, rather unintentionally, when I was first creating the homepage of my blog. But I played around with it for my Instagram handle, @etphiguresitout: @et (my initials) phigures (“figures” but with a Ph — a nod to my PhD journey) it out (life).

• figuring out my PhD program
• figuring out research
• figuring out relationships (friendships, working, familial, etc.)
• figuring out allyship
• figuring out blogging
• figuring out health and wellness
• figuring out cooking
• figuring out identity
• figuring out “adulting” (I know, I’m cringing at the use of this phrase too)
• figuring out life, and pretty much everything that comes with it

I should add, as an early disclaimer, that I will likely never completely “figure out” any of these topics. But that’s the journey I’m trying to embrace. I’m just an average person, sharing my experiences with the world. So bear with me while I learn, make mistakes, and grow.

If you’ve made it here, thanks for taking the time to read all the way through. See you in the next one!