This year I got a very special birthday present – a poster at my first conference, EGU2018! It was incredible. I met people interested in my work, explained it in at least 10 different ways and totally lost my voice by the end of the day. On top of that, when I returned to my room, I was greeted by a surprise bouquet of flowers from my husband and a card hidden in my suitcase.

Next couple days were surreal. Lots of talks, posters, meeting even more people and feverish abstract writing for the next conference. That next conference is in Japan, the iCACGP-IGAC 2018, one of the best atmospheric chemistry conferences.

Fascinating how communicating your own research powers up your interest in the subject. It is a ‘must have’ remedy for the second year blues, which I went through last year, echos of it still crawling into my mind. Going to EGU2018 was probably one of the best wellbeing decisions of my PhD, and we will see if IGAC would have the same impact.