Building a Celebration Collection

Greetings again.  I hope that all is going well.

This week I gave postdoctoral fellows and others at our medical school a presentation on writing journal articles. Afterward, an assistant professor told me a nice idea.

She began by mentioning a famous researcher who opened a bottle of champagne whenever one of his papers was published. The researcher kept all of the champagne bottles. The collection reminded him of his successes.

The assistant professor has a similar collection. Whenever she publishes a paper or has another major success, she opens a bottle of wine to celebrate. Rather than keeping the bottles (which take up a lot of space), she keeps the corks.

Researchers also can have other kinds of celebration collections. Here are some ideas:

• Whenever you publish a paper, go to a movie (or concert, sports match, or other event that you enjoy). Keep a collection of the tickets, programs, or other mementos.
• Whenever you publish a paper, buy a book that you want. Keep the books together in a specific place.
• Whenever you publish a paper, eat a delicious meal at home or in a restaurant. Take a photo of each celebration meal, and keep the photos.
• Whenever you publish a paper, go to a park or other favorite place with family members or friends. Take a photo of the group, and keep the photos.

Hmmm, maybe whenever I release a blog post I’ll eat a chocolate bar. But no, having so many chocolate-bar wrappers might be embarrassing.

Wishing you a good week—

Barbara