Illustration: Henk van Ruitenbeek In my first meeting with my supervisor, she invited me to join the WhatsApp group Lunch Walk in our research team. She said that the group is for people who like to walk around Wageningen and get to know each other. So I said ‘yes’ because I thought that would be fun.
Until the time she invited me for one of these lunch walks. I thought we would talk about ‘light’ topics outside work, such as life, our hometowns, and other personal stuff. And to start with, she did indeed ask me how I was doing and raised other light topics.
The lunch walk was mental as well as physical exercise
But then she started to talk about work and my research. She mentioned different ideas to feed into my research proposal. It took about 30 minutes and during that time, I tried to remember the main ideas, suggestions, and the to-do list she gave me. I am used to taking notes in a work meeting, so I thought about getting out my phone and taking notes while walking but it was difficult because it was cold and I had to watch where I was walking. So during the walk, my brain worked hard to respond to her ideas and remember the discussion points.
When the walk – from the Leeuwenborg building to the Hollandseweg, the Bosweg and back – was finally over, the first thing I did was to take notes of all the things I could remember.
So now I know a lunchtime walk is not just for fun. It is mental as well as physical exercise 😀
Ibnu Budiman, a PhD candidate in the Social Sciences Group, from Indonesia
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