🇬🇧Two Years, a ‘Sooner,’ and the Importance of ‘Accountability’!

Reflections

Science

Career

Author

Emilyn Costa

Published

7 January 2025

“Accountability breeds response-ability.” — Stephen R. Covey

Two Years, a “Sooner,” and the Importance of “Accountability”!

Today is January 7, 2025 — two years since my first post in 2023. And here I am, with my “sooner” (Help! 😅 — Well, this “help” makes more sense in Brazil, but I’ll leave it here 🤪). Reflecting on this period, I see that 2023 and 2024 were years of professional doubts and challenges. Since life doesn’t fit into neat boxes, these challenges ended up impacting all areas of my life. I’m still a postdoc at Stellenbosch University, in the same research group (@TBGenomics 🫶🏽).

Today, I want to talk about something I learned during this process: the importance of “accountability” 🫂.

You know that word that doesn’t have an exact translation into Portuguese? For me, this word means having a solid support network, people I can count on, share my worries with, and celebrate achievements. It encompasses the concepts of reliability, responsibility, and commitment. “Accountability” goes beyond meeting deadlines or achieving results; it’s about having someone to rely on — someone to share difficulties and multiply strengths. And believe me, this makes all the difference in the life of a scientist 👩🏾‍🔬🧑🏼‍🔬!

We live in a whirlwind of deadlines, unfinished papers, experiments that need to be planned, executed, and often repeated, events… It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lost. That’s why having colleagues who understand, inspire, and motivate you is essential. People with whom you can be vulnerable, talk about career challenges, and even vent about that “backstabber” you encountered at the expensive conference you paid to attend.

Speaking of conferences, it’s wonderful to reconnect with colleagues/friends, meet new people, and stay updated on the latest discoveries. It’s like a shot of adrenaline! You leave there wanting to win the Nobel Prize (who hasn’t?! 🤪).

But, in the end, what I value most are the connections I make, the hallway conversations, the shared coffees… It’s in this environment that “accountability” can flourish. How great it is to reconnect with colleagues from other continents, talk about protocols and pipelines, but also about aspects of our cultures, geopolitics, cuisine, history, etc.

For those who think the best part of a conference is the tourism, I say that comes second (and you say: “yeah, right!” 😅). The real highlight is reconnecting with dear colleagues, exchanging ideas with new contacts, and getting a preview of the latest in science before it’s even published. I often say that conference proceedings are like a literature review in a relaxed environment, with brilliant minds and esteemed colleagues. Of course, every now and then, we encounter the dreaded “backstabbers,” but even they are part of the learning process.

Today, I want to thank my support network, which might not even reach five people 🥹.
They are colleagues who share the lab and office with me or those who, even from afar, share experiences and support. They help me navigate the uncertainties of my career.

These are the people I can talk to about the challenges of academic life: being a scientist in and from the Global South, a woman, a foreigner, and part of a “limbo” called “early-mid career,” trying to find my place in this academic system that, let’s face it, leaves much to be desired… But that’s a topic for another post! (I’ll refine my “logo” definition, I promise! 🫡).

🌟 My message to you, dear reader:

Cultivate your collaborative network, but also your emotional and professional support network.
Invest in “accountability”!
Use scientific events, coffee breaks, walks, or online meetings as opportunities to strengthen these connections.
Choose mentors carefully. Not every supervisor will be your mentor, and that’s okay. When mentorship and supervision align, it’s wonderful, but it doesn’t always happen.
Choose those you can “count on” 🙋🏻‍♀️ 💁🏿 🙆🏻‍♂️ 🙅🏿‍♀️ 🙆🏽‍♀️.

May your journey be filled with people to share challenges and celebrate achievements 🫰🏽!

P.S.: I hope to stick to the resolutions I made in 2023 throughout 2025 😅.
Creating a space to share my experiences has been on my resolution list since 2010, but it was only in 2023 that I took the idea off the paper (or rather, out of the subfolders!). See you soon! I’m already starting to draft the next post. I think publishing monthly would be a sustainable frequency, don’t you think?
If you’ve read this far and resonated with the topic, I’d love to hear your opinion 🤲🏽!
Share your thoughts (emilyncosta@gmail.com) or tag me on social media (@emilyncosta). (well, my Instagran is privated, but you can find me on other online spaces :) ) Although I’m not a social media queen, I promise to reply with great pleasure. 😊

Emilyn Costa.

Disclaimer: Blog translated from Portuguese to English using AI tools and super quickly revised by me. It might have some nonsense English. Sorry! 🫶🏽

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@misc{costa_conceição2025,
  author = {{Emilyn Costa Conceição} and Costa, Emilyn},
  title = {🇬🇧Two {Years,} a “{Sooner,}” and the {Importance} of
    “{Accountability}”!},
  date = {2025-01-07},
  url = {https://emilyncosta.com/posts/002-accountability/index.en.html},
  langid = {en-GB}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Emilyn Costa Conceição, and Emilyn Costa. 2025. “🇬🇧Two Years, a ‘Sooner,’ and the Importance of ‘Accountability’!” https://emilyncosta.com/posts/002-accountability/index.en.html.