This week-in-a-life vlog is basically me trying to stay productive while my physics PhD decides to be… humbling. I start the week exhausted (like, “I’m so sleepy” exhausted) and end up spending an entire day fighting with a laser that only decided to work around 4 p.m. I didn’t want to leave the lab empty-handed, so I ran two samples anyway—just to have something to kickstart the next day. In between lab work, I’m also trying to squeeze in content filming, tidy myself up because I looked like a whole mess, and survive the afternoon slump where data analysis is waiting for me (and I really don’t want to do it). Midweek, I get the email that my paper is finally accepted for publication, and that honestly flips a switch in my brain. I get super motivated to push my ongoing experiment and even fix old code I haven’t touched in months—because data analysis is usually the worst part for me. Then I go full competitive mode and attempt journal cover artwork using Adobe Illustrator for the first time. It has a steep learning curve, but AI (Gemini) basically walked me through effects step-by-step, and I ended up genuinely having fun. It’s a busy, chatty, cozy grad school week—tiring, but so worth it.