GOIAKO

A few weeks ago, someone who’s thinking of applying for a grad school asked me what she should do or shouldn’t do to succeed in graduate school.

When I heard that question, I was thinking…
1) I don’t know. How would I know?
2) How the heck do you define “being successful in grad school?”
3) Everyone’s different!
4) Read the PhD Comics…

This whole conversation made me think of…all those times I seriously thought of quitting the school. Gosh – I can’t even count how many times it really was.

Why didn’t I quit then?

1) “I can’t quit because I’m not a quitter.”
This was why when I in my 1st year.

2) “I don’t have anything else to do.”
Yes – when I was in my 2nd year.

3) “It is too much of an investment already. I have to finish.”
Yes, you’ve probably guessed – this was when I was in my 3rd year.

And then, when I was ending my 4th year in my phd program, I finally realized what I wanted to do [when I grow up ;p]. And that’s really what got me through the rest of my grad school.

I was mostly very happy to discover my passion, although a bit disappointed that it took almost four years. I think it took me longer to find my path because I was resisting the idea of changing my career and life goals I had in mind when I started the program. I had a pretty vivid picture of what kind of life and career I’d have after getting a phd. After four years of resisting, and then learning from successes and failures of others as well as mine, I let it go and embrace my new goals, mission, and passion.

So, that’s it. That’s why I stayed in grad school. A boring story, maybe (NOOOOO!), but a true one. =)

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In case you’re wondering what I told the person I meantioned in the beginning of this post, this was what came out of my mouth:

“I don’t know if success means the same thing for everyone. I mean, what success meant to me five years ago is different from what it meant to me when I was graduating.

I think what helped me survive and thrive sometimes in my program was … being open to different opportunities even if it doesn’t sound that good [you'll always learn something!], having support from friends, talking to different people, and … being true to myself – well, at least trying whenever I could.

And of course, you gotta work hard, lose some sleep, drink lots of coffee, give up weekends, and [blah blah blah...]“