So, for the past couple of years, if you were not aware, I’ve been back at Georgia Tech working toward my PhD in electrical and computer engineering (ECE).
Therefore, I’ve been living the life of the not-so-esteemed graduate student.
Much has been written about this…interesting…way a person chooses to live their life. In fact, there’s even a well-known comic about it.
But I’m now choosing to share my experience with it with you.
Being a graduate student is many things. You’ll be able to explore ideas quite freely, if you can find time to do it. You might get to do some neat things. You might get your name on a neat publication.
You’ll notice the preponderance of “might” in here.
What you’ll mostly get is ambiguous stress that may or may not have a clear source, a need for approval even though that approval is often quite silly, and almost constant disappointment, if you’re not one of the lucky ones.
So one of the things you’ll have to develop as a graduate student is a tough skin. Or some way to just not care about some things. Unfortunately, with so much of what I do getting a little too close to my heart, it’s very hard to simply not care.
So yeah, if you choose to do what I’m doing, you might find yourself going through some pain. Or almost certainly find yourself going through some pain. Either way, there will be pain.
Although there’s that nice light at the end of the tunnel once you get through all of this. I’m barely seeing it, myself.