As a sophisticated Ph.D. student, one should always be perceived by others as a serious, busy and someone who has no interest in other matters of life but his/her Ph.D. To be honest it feels good when someone asks you about your Ph.D. topic and you answer with a long complicated title — which sometimes even you don’t seem to understand – and enjoy the puzzled looks and the murmurs like: Wow, interesting!
It’s true that sometimes all this Ph.D. stuff gets on your nerves and you find yourself stuck at one point not able to move to the other. Speaking about myself, I have mastered the art of playing busy and wasting time. In the UK, most Ph.D. programs are research only and it can be a very lonely experience especially for someone who loves talking and interacting so much (OK, I know I am talkative sometimes, I admit it), but you can simply work for half the day and achieve and then give yourself a break watching nonsense youtube videos and keep on telling yourself, “I am on a break, I am on a break, we all deserve breaks.” And the break can go on forever without you realizing it. Sometimes you tell yourself that you will just go and grab something to eat at lunch time, come on, we all need food, and then you go and wander around food aisles in the local supermarket or decide to treat yourself to your favorite coffee at the nearby cafe, and still your subconscious mind is in a full rest, until you suddenly realize that your supervisor require a submission and then you run like crazy regretting all wasted moments.
Speaking about knowledge acquired, let’s be frank here. I am in the middle of my Ph.D. journey and I can confirm that I know a lot about my very narrow subject, but I seriously have no clue about the topic that the person sitting next to me is doing even though that we are both studying at the same department. Ph.D. is a lengthy journey, you spend 3 or 4 years of your life researching some topic and you are always surprised about the vast amount of resources that you need to review in order to be capable to conduct an academically acceptable research. Now I look back at some of the arrogant conceited professors I dealt with during my undergrad days and I just wonder how they got there. Some Ph.D.s’ speak and blab in all subject matters believing that the title “Dr.” has given them a license to speak on an issue. Since, I am now in the same boat with them, I hope they wake up to reality. Ph.D. will not give you pure knowledge, it equips you with the right tools that allow you to be a life- long knowledge seeker and if Ph.D. did not make you humble to the ocean of knowledge and subjects that you don’t know about, then your degree is a waste of money and resources.
@ HatoonKadi
