Attending Conferences and Prioritizing Rest with RA

October is a busy month for me and my office down in Florida. Each October, we attend the Florida Statewide Symposium which is an annual meeting of Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) Administrators in the state. Of course with COVID, the 2020 meeting was virtual, but this time for 2021, the conference was in-person so it was a little bit unnerving to be back in person with the pandemic still going on. Despite this, it was nice to be back after such a long period.

I was exhausted after just 2 days

What I wasn't prepared for, however, was the exhaustion my body experienced after attending the conference for a two-day period. Unlike the flexibility of being online and being able to be in my own apartment, an in-person conference doesn't have the same element of opportunities for relaxation (at least the possibility of having some rest in between sessions). (As a note: that was one thing I really appreciated about Connexion 2019 in person; this would obviously happen since that was a conference specifically designed for those with chronic illnesses).

Being your own advocate is empowering

Nevertheless, I found myself advocating for myself in being able to exert when I needed a rest by speaking up and listening to my body. Which, in many ways, felt empowering and something that I would not have been prepared to do before the pandemic.

Conferences leave little time for rest

At this conference, the schedule is slam-packed with different timed sessions throughout the two days. Some presentations are interactive at 45 mins each, some are mini-presentations at 10 mins each, and some are a little bit longer at 1 hour and 30 mins each.

The point is that the differences in these presentations, especially when you are presenting, can be draining when you have to navigate throughout the conference schedule. Not to mention that you have to talk and network while doing the presentations and attending lunches and dinners, but I was able to excuse myself and have some alone time when I was feeling exhausted and in need of rest, especially when I could feel the exhaustion from RA and some pain in my joints coming on.

Missing out because of my RA

And yes, unfortunately, that might make me miss some networking opportunities and some conversations with fellow administrators and peers. It can also be disheartening to have to excuse yourself to prioritize yourself because it used to be that I could attend every session, have every conversation, and take notes and fully engage in every aspect of the conference.

Getting plenty of rest is my priority

Sometimes when things like this surface in my brain, I feel a sense of sadness, a pining for a time and current positionality that doesn’t involve having RA, but I’m cognizant of the fact that it's not possible. Instead, I'm choosing to turn this into a positive frame of mind by saying that I am becoming/have to become more efficient in my networking and conversations. At the end of the day, I have to advocate for myself, know myself, and take care of my body in order to be able to attend conferences like this moving forward.