I love having something in my life which is so close to my heart, and my self, that a care passionately enough to need to moan, moan, moan about things which threaten it. I also LOVE the camaraderie of this form, and to know that we are all going through this, and can share our experience anonymously when we need to.

Good luck Smilodon. I'm sure you'll be great!
I'll be thinking about you.
xx

Thanks guys! I've got that infernal song: It's The Final Countdown stuck in my head....................:-s

======= Date Modified 29 Jul 2009 18:01:14 =======
i am deeply sorry about my word chosen. i really think here is a good platform for we all to share about our either positive and negative experiences. i am just agreeing here may need some positive energy ^,^

Well, I think complaining about people complaining about their PhD is like people with no kids complaining about people complaining about parenting issues.

You love your kids. You don't regret them. But like Dickens says: it's the best of times and the worst of times.

I am on a parenting forum and guess what - it's mainly cires for help and support and major moaning about this and that. But we all know that 99.99 of us don't regret having kids. It's just really tough some times.

So it is with a PhD. My other baby. When it's good, it's the best. When it goes pair-shaped - it is profoundly stressful and challenges your self-esteem.

I don't have the blessed freedom of hours etc that some posters tease me with but I do like to be able to contemplate puzzles of my choice and follow my natural inclinations - something many jobs don't allow. That really is it for me - I think the mind follows a natural course, like water - and this was my way to follow that course.

i'm loving this thread! You've all cheered my up and reminded me of my reasons for doing a phD and why I really do love it, despite the complaints and moaning! Good luck all of you who have vivas and final submission dates coming up, i'm sure you'll be UBER Doctors soon! :)

Smilodon's post hits the nail on the head, I got told off on a different forum a while ago for having a bit of a bad day and a moan from someone not doing a phD and it REALLY upset me for a week or so (pathetic probably on my part!), but I love this forum for having an anonymous support sanctuary!

Anyway, reading this post has made me sit at the bench this afternoon and think about why I did my phD in the first place and it was really my love for academia and the world we live in - I also love walking around old campus areas and getting that uni vibe, unfortunately I mostly work in the dungeons of a hospital now :(!
I also just love to know things that nobody else in teh world possibly knows yet, and to know that one day hopefully i'll be the one to put that info out there!! to create and nurture my research and know its my own little baby that I have thought up and designed!
and to write my name into pubmed and it comes up :) as of the last few weeks!! although unfortunately no first author yet but hopefully one day.....!

maybe I should stay in science and lab based work when I think about it like this! Recently i've been so tired and drained all i've seen is the bad! but i'm still going every day and love sitting at the bench and seeing new exciting things, so maybe i do still have the passion i was beginning to think i'd lost!

Thank you Sue for this post and making me think about the love not the hate!

:-x

======= Date Modified 30 Jul 2009 19:03:12 =======
Like Smilodon, I haven't had much time to spend thinking etc because I work full time but if you asked me whether I regret doing the PhD the answer is definitely 'no'. I can't honestly say I've enjoyed it but it has given me a different perspective. I'd also agree that being called 'Dr' will make up for some of the pain ;-)

Smilodon, I hope it went well today (up)

Days like today when I feel like a child exhausted by over excitement, because the paper I'm about to finish is streets ahead of my last written work; and is something which I think could do me justice; and because of the electricity which has been running through my brain these last couple of days. The feeling of getting closer and closer to where I want to be.

Things I like about doing my PhD are

1 Doing something I absolutely love and that I think about all the time. I dont look upon my PhD as a job I look upon it more as my lifes passion.
2 The days when you obtain some really interesting results from you experiments and your mind just goes into drive trying to figure out the meaning of them.
3 Reading excellent research papers that make you stop and think about certain dogmas.
4 Having great discussions with people far more intelligent than me
5 The constant hope that one day I could make a discovery that would help find a cure to some terminal disease.
6 Not having to work on a building site anymore for money :)