I came across this website of cartoons about getting a Ph.D. If you want to see the cartoons large enough to really read, please click on them. It brought back memories. Very funny now, but not so funny then. The first is about how after getting through comprehensive exams you’re just dog-tired. For me, I completed the exams by the end of my second year. Classes were through too. then there was teh independent research proposal. Now our rules were that it couldn’t have anything to do with your current research, but still had to be in your major–in my case taht was analytical chemistry. I think I completed that in the third year. I had to get through classes and exams first. I was happy that I passed all the exams I needed to go onto the Ph.D. program, but that made it more real. The “oh shit” factor comes in. Suddenly it’s not play-time anymore. Now that you have more time, your advisor is on your case to complete research. You’re given a couple of years of slack because of commitments to classes, exams and teaching.

So I became an expert at procrastination. I did do research and repeated it many times. Funny how long it takes before you actually get “good” data. All the while, you wish you were somewhere else besides the cold, dark lab. I sat in the dark because of the fluorescence work I did with lasers. Darkness helps make the laser beam easier to see and keeps out extraneous light.

This next cartoon is just so me. I really hate to admit it, but I was exactly like this through undergraduate.

Graduate school causes a few changes. While I didn’t drink in college, but the time I was near the last few years of grad school I became quite the drinker. Gained weight too. That part sucked. Teaching was so stressful that Thursday nights we all went out. I probably delayed graduation even more with my added social life. More on that later…