Can doing a PhD really be the worst experience of one's life?

You choose to do it, so do it as well as you can, says Wan-yu.

After watching The Merchant of Venice at the uni cinema, a friend and I chatted about the film, Shakespeare's Italy, life centuries ago, and this friend's current PhD life.

Can doing a PhD really be the worst experience in one's life? The stress is horrifying, but everyone says those who are good at time-management would survive a presumably three-year PhD. In addition if lucky enough, the PhD student would be well taken care of by the kindhearted supervisor.

I said to my friend, "you can do it! It's almost done!" It is his third year now and it's the writing up stage already, so I thought all he had to do at the moment is write an eighty-thousand-word book about all his work and finding during the three years.

Books and periodicals and others' PhD theses and my own writing and my supervisor's comments, ALL in front of me on the desk waiting for me to finish reading them all within a limited period of time. Oh, I could make comforting remarks to my friend, but I myself am threatened by the amount of workload I am facing.

All of this can at times suddenly seem a bit pointless and it is during then that we've got to search for a sort of new meaning in doing this. No one but you can help yourself. At PhD level, it is time you're independent. If you still expect help from anyone other than yourself, you will be asking too much, though it does not seem so.

You choose to do it, then do it as well as you can. Friends will be around to listen to all your moaning, and also to share your happiness when your task is done.

Wan-yu

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