If you have already read Anna’s blog, I did eventually wake up! In my defence, my fourteen hours of unconsciousness was earned by a week that gave us far more exciting things to do than sleep.
Update on our work
The headline from work this week is that our supervisors are genuinely impressed with how much Anna and I have gotten through. They'd expected the PRS decision-support tool to take us at least two more weeks but it's essentially done. Somewhere in the last fortnight, Anna and I settled into a rhythm where we split tasks along whatever we're each better at without really having to discuss it, and it turns out that's a genuinely efficient way to work. I think our good teamwork really comes down to how we already know the way the other operates!
I've been thinking more about the team culture at TGRC and why that culture exists. Part of it, I think, is size - there are only six people in their core team, and everyone does a bit of everything, so there isn't really a clear hierarchy to defer to even if you wanted one. Part of it is structure - every Wednesday the whole team meets to go through how everyone's progress is going and what's been challenging that week, and then works out together how to help and support each other with it. The meeting closes with everyone saying one thing they're proud of from the week, or one thing they did for their mental health. It's a small ritual, but I think it does a lot of quiet work. It keeps everyone genuinely aware of what everyone else is carrying, and I think that awareness is where the trust actually comes from, rather than the other way around.
I think that structure is also why we were asked this week to join a third project. It involves helping design a focus group with adolescents affected by depression, to understand how they'd like to be supported, feeding into a much bigger piece of work on tackling adolescent depression. I'm excited about this one in a way that feels different to the first two projects. It's contributing to the actual framework a piece of research gets built on, not analysing it after the fact, and it's about as close as I've been yet to the people research like this is meant to help, rather than the abstractions you read about in a journal article.
Vancouver in general
Vancouver has a way of making you talk to strangers that Oxford does not, and I mean that as a compliment. We've been stopped for conversation more times than I can count - at the beach, on trails, on the bus etc. I haven’t yet figured out if it’s because of our British accents or just the way everyone is. Maybe it is a bit of both! Regardless, the one that's stuck with me was on a forest walk earlier this week, when a woman we'd never met told us to dream big. It sounds a bit cheesy written out like that, but it landed at a genuinely good moment, mid-spiral about what on earth I'm doing after graduation, and I've thought about it a lot.
Side-questing (as ever)
The actual internship-adjacent achievement of the week is that Anna and I have swum at sunset almost every evening. I never get bored of how the entire beach claps and cheers once the sun's fully down. We also went back out with the UBC outdoor club, this time up to Brew Hut, and somehow the hiking was the least memorable part of the trip. We cooked a six-course meal at altitude, someone produced a guitar from nowhere (there is, it seems, always a guitar), and the stargazing at the top was incredible, easily the best view of the whole placement so far (see photo). After a questionable nights sleep with the bears and mice (not sure which is scarier), we then ran most of the way back down the mountain to make it to a pub in Squamish in time for the World Cup final, which felt like a fitting bit of symmetry given Squamish is also where we spent twelve hours stranded the week before. This time we made it out considerably faster, and with considerably more dignity (although Anna did take a power nap on the pub floor for most of the first half...)
Two weeks in and we are definitely making the most of our time here and trying our best to appreciate it all!!!
I am a first year student reading Human Sciences at St Catherine's College Oxford and am a Laidlaw research scholar in association with the SDG Impact Lab for 2025
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wow is that picture from your hike?
Tilly, this is a wonderful reflection, and I am relieved to receive confirmation that you woke up 😊! The photograph from the top of the mountain is fabulous and suggests that you and Anna really are making the most of every dimension of the experience.
Your analysis of TGRC’s team culture is particularly insightful. Your observation that its Wednesday ritual creates mutual awareness, and that trust may emerge from that awareness rather than simply preceding it, is excellent. You have moved beyond describing the team as supportive and begun identifying the recurring practices through which that support is produced.
Your working relationship with Anna also raises an interesting leadership question. An almost unspoken division of labour can reflect trust, familiarity and complementary strengths. How might you ensure that it also continues to give both of you opportunities to learn, stretch yourselves and share less immediately attractive tasks?
I was also struck by your excitement about contributing to the design of research with adolescents rather than encountering their experiences only as abstractions. As that work develops, I would be interested to hear what you learn about meaningful participation: how can adolescents influence not only their answers, but the questions asked and the support eventually designed?
This is thoughtful, perceptive and very funny. Please continue making the most of it all.