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I don’t know who needs to hear this but, YOU CAN DO IT. I think sometimes, we HDR students are too hard on ourselves – and I know it’s all with good intentions. We all took a little break during the weekend and let a friend’s school-age child pick a movie for the whole bunch of us to watch. We realized that Kung Fu Panda has a lot of relatable quotable quotes. Here were our favourites.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present. –Master Oogway

Yesterday we so badly wanted that Ph.D. scholarship. Now that we’re here, we worry whether we’ll get the jobs and the career we wanted. We’ve forgotten that right here is the sweet spot – we get to focus on ourselves and the research topic that we chose.

You have to believe in yourself. That’s the secret. – Po

Most graduates would say that postgraduate study is more about internal motivation, resilience, curiosity, and critical skills and less about just being ‘smart’.

The strongest of us sometimes have the hardest time fighting what’s on the inside. – Po

We were all talking about this quote and how sometimes what’s ‘inside’ is not just the feeling of being an imposter, sometimes what we’re battling inside might also be battling self-doubt or working through circumstances that are outside of our control – sickness, someone dear to us passing away, isolation,  missing family, etcetera – all while trying to finish our degrees. This is why it’s really important we all have each other.

What about you? What have you learned about yourself during your HDR journey? Here are a few more quotes from the movie that you might want to think about in terms of your study experiences so far.

• The only true limit is the one you set for yourself. – Shifu
• If you only do what you can do, you’ll never be better than what you are.” – Shifu
• The measure of a real champion is not whether they can triumph, but whether they can overcome defeat. – Shifu
• Your mind is like water, my friend. When it is agitated, it becomes difficult to see. But if you allow it to settle, then the answer becomes clear. – Master Oogway

PS Here’s a recipe I shared last year which we all made and ate as we watched the movie. Very hearty night all 'round!