(no subject)
So my friends are getting married and having babies.
In a recent email my friend Mary put these into the same category as getting a Ph.D. She wrote, "remember when we had no cares in the world... now we are getting married, having babies, and getting Ph.D.s" Somehow I think these things are disanalogous. Getting a Ph.D., while to the outside world, may seem like a lot of responsibility, it really isn't. You are pretty much your own boss except with more poverty. You can sleep in, you can start a successful indie rock band, win money in latin dance competitions, or open a internet knitting store. (I am not doing all of these things.) You have a lot of time to do what you please with. The only real obligations you have is to call your parents, submit some writing to your supervisor and occasionally talk about intellectual things.
I'm not trying to argue that getting a Ph.D. is easy. Of all the things it is, it is not that. But its not about greater responsibility, either. And it's certainly not really about growing up. I mean I'm 25, live in one of the most expensive cities to rent in, and survive on $700 every two weeks. I work for a wage no more than 5 hours a week. I eat a lot of rice because its cheap. I probably won't have a secure job until I'm 35 and probably won't buy real estate until I'm almost 40. I could very well finish here in Sydney and have to move back in with my parents.
I am so very happy for all my friends and in many ways I'm jealous of their stability. But the road I have willingly chosen is not that road. Getting a Ph.D. is not like getting married or having children. In a lot of ways, it is the antithesis of that.
In a recent email my friend Mary put these into the same category as getting a Ph.D. She wrote, "remember when we had no cares in the world... now we are getting married, having babies, and getting Ph.D.s" Somehow I think these things are disanalogous. Getting a Ph.D., while to the outside world, may seem like a lot of responsibility, it really isn't. You are pretty much your own boss except with more poverty. You can sleep in, you can start a successful indie rock band, win money in latin dance competitions, or open a internet knitting store. (I am not doing all of these things.) You have a lot of time to do what you please with. The only real obligations you have is to call your parents, submit some writing to your supervisor and occasionally talk about intellectual things.
I'm not trying to argue that getting a Ph.D. is easy. Of all the things it is, it is not that. But its not about greater responsibility, either. And it's certainly not really about growing up. I mean I'm 25, live in one of the most expensive cities to rent in, and survive on $700 every two weeks. I work for a wage no more than 5 hours a week. I eat a lot of rice because its cheap. I probably won't have a secure job until I'm 35 and probably won't buy real estate until I'm almost 40. I could very well finish here in Sydney and have to move back in with my parents.
I am so very happy for all my friends and in many ways I'm jealous of their stability. But the road I have willingly chosen is not that road. Getting a Ph.D. is not like getting married or having children. In a lot of ways, it is the antithesis of that.