Salndave Bobo Skosana
BIO
PhD candidate in molecular and cell biology and single mom.
Instagram: @salndaveskosana
Twitter: @SalndaveBobo
Salndave Bobo Skosana
“When experiments failed and the joy of science was running low, my daughter was my driving force.”
My love for science began at a very early age. It seemed to be the only thing that satisfied my curious mind, a glimpse into understanding how everything works! I decided as soon as I started my degree in Molecular Biology that I would continue straight to PhD level. So you can imagine how excited I was at the beginning of my final year, time to decide which Honours degree I’d pursue. Then I fell pregnant, and that was the beginning of my SciMom journey…
I decided to take a year off after my undergraduate degree to focus on raising my daughter. During this period a big part of me wanted to throw away the plan and find a job. I could not see how I could possibly study for 5 more years and financially support my daughter. My family would not let me do this, so I decided to pursue an Honours degree in Pharmacology. This was an exciting time, because it was an interesting and new field for me. However, it was my first experience of juggling motherhood with my studies - and what an experience it was!
It was a lonely period because my peers could not relate with what was the biggest part of my life, something which I hadn’t prepared myself for.
Even with the support from my family it was also a very exhausting year. Honour’s is an intense year, plus I had more failed experiments than successful ones. Between being a student by day, a mother by night and back to student in the early hours of the day, I had to learn that failure is part of the scientific process.
Despite the failures, exhaustion and loneliness, the feeling of being a present parent while pursuing my dreams was unmatched. I successfully made it through the year, learnt a lot and enjoyed the glimpse into the field.
I decided that I wanted to go back to Molecular Biology for my master’s degree, but the research group I was interested in joining was in a different province. I had to decide between leaving my daughter at home with my family or moving with her. I understood the difficulty being a single mom away from my support structure would come with, but could not imagine not seeing my daughter daily, so I moved with her. The early days of my master’s degree were very stressful!
The adjustment to being a single (and isolated) parent while trying to start off my research was a lot. Another stress point was watching lab mates work weekends and late sometimes and knowing that I can’t, made me feel like I was falling behind and not being as productive as a “good” student should be.
Experiments do not respect one’s schedule and this was my biggest source of anxiety since preschool ends at a set time and I am expected to be there. I had to focus on building a support structure as quickly as possible, so I had a plan for days when experiments went overtime or the odd time when I had to work over the weekends. I also started planning out my months, weeks and days and stuck to my plan more strictly, which led to increased productivity and less anxiety. These changes really made a difference; and allowed me to enjoy my research a lot more.
The decision to continue from Master’s to PhD was easy because of the support I had, both inside and outside the lab. I am now in the final year of my PhD degree, with a first author paper published and I can say it has been worth it.
Now, I will not say being a SciMom is easy, and I can imagine it gets harder the further one goes in their career. However, it is possible to juggle motherhood with science, but support is what allows one to do so while keeping their sanity. I found that when experiments failed and the joy of science was running low, my daughter was my driving force. Now that she is older, her looking at me and saying she is proud of me and telling everyone that her mommy is a scientist makes me realise that it is even more important to pursue your passion and purpose when you have kids.