Over the past 3 years pursing a PhD, many times, I have asked myself life questions such as 'Why am I here?' or 'What am I doing?' or 'Am I happy?'. Along the way, there have been many lessons learned and there are many more still to come. My most recent discovery is that everyone struggles at some point. Whether it is with life in general or PhD specific, it happens. I henceforth decided to share my experiences via timely reflections of my experiences through this blog. Here's to hoping that these reflections will help someone (including myself) avoid making the same mistakes.
I can now return back to the pressing question of 'Why am I here?'.
As a PhD student, I have dedicated alot of my time to research - with social occasions few and far between. During deadline phases, I have worked my butt off - often more than 12 hours a day (including most weekends) with little time to go to the gym or god forbid socializing. To be clear - this was not because anyone was forcing me. I choose to work this hard to reach self-set goals geared towards obtaining a PhD in reasonable time frames. But, why do it in the first place?
Besides loving my research and my co-workers, my answer stems from the fact that I am still learning. And, more importantly, I have people around me who are willing to correct me and help me learn. I can enjoy going to work, and busting my butt with next to no sleep, because at the end of the day, I feel like I am still growing. I do not ever expect to stop growing and learning, but thus far, the pursuit of a PhD has helped me grow in many areas (coursework, mathematical background, software, hardware, writing, management, to name a few). Eventually, I'm sure I will get tired of this routine and crave a new form of growth, and at that point, hopefully I am close to graduation :).
