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The application waiting game has almost come to an end, and many of you are already looking for apartments in various cities across the world as you prepare to move for another graduate degree or post doc position. Or, you might be on the other end of the stick: slowly, but surely working through your graduate degree but having to prepare yourself seeing treasured friends from graduate life pack up and head out. Whew…the seasons of the graduate life!
We wanted to ask you today to think back to your earliest memories of starting on this graduate partner journey. Think back to the countless internet searches over the new city to which you were moving, the countless searches for welcome groups, any tidbits of insight or information you could gather about the experience ahead of you. Both of us remember well what that was like!
Right now, most universities are getting ready to send loads of information to incoming students concerning their moves and the things in store for them. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a link to The Graduate Wife sent to those students? We think back to our beginnings on this journey and wonder what a gift it would have been to be directed to this site to receive the wealth of encouragement and support before we even began!
This is where we ask you, our readers, to help spread the word about The Graduate Wife site by sending this letter to your current university or alma mater. You can tailor it to your specific school, and please feel free to reword the language if you’d like. We’ve had great feedback from people who have found the site through university postings, and we can’t help but imagine the many other wives or partners out there who could benefit from it in the future.
We realize a lot of our readers prefer to stay anonymous. In that case, if you have a contact at your university, please let us know that information and we can contact them.
We have experienced a wonderful community of friends in our current city. However, there are a lot of women who don’t have that where they live, and for those who have found this blog, the virtual community has been a lifeline of hope and support to them. For those of you have shared your stories, thank you. For those of you who read this blog, thank you. Here’s a snippet of some emails we receive on a weekly basis:
“It actually helps a lot to hear other people’s experience. I only know a couple of graduate wives, most of our colleagues are single. I had been talking to friends for the past few months, but non of them in academia. But your experience has been very encouraging for both of us, just knowing there are people like us “out there”.” – reader from North America
“I cannot tell you how much this site encourages me.” – reader from the UK
“I found your blog at the right time and really have enjoyed spending a good part of my day reading all your posts. Some have made me laugh and others cry. I have not found anyone that I can relate to who is on this journey of grad school, however, I instantly found comfort in your words. Thank you so much.” – reader from North America
Help us reach out to others!
Your journey matters and is impacting graduate wives across the globe,
-Mandy & MC
the graduate wife 