Any idea where I can find the entire song text?

Just google "you held the world in your arms", first result.

Thanks. I found it.
It's very relevant for my current life as well.

Hi Sue

It really surprising to know how a soon-to-finish PhD student feels, I never thought that way . So I guess it is better for people to drop sooner than later?
You know, that part of your song "watching your youth drift away" that touches me. I remember when I finished my masters someone told me "you should continue for PhD" and someone else replied to him "let him be free, don't push him into a PhD and have his youth wasted inside a lab" I laugh at that time, but now..... I feel strange sensation about it ....

presumably on one of the many lyrics websites. Try googling a sample of the lyrics and see if it takes you there.

I'm only six months in, and I'm not leaving. I've given too much already.

Seeing as though it's fashionable to be morbid today, when I'm off guard I still think I'm 22. Then I come to my senses and realise I'm 33 and wonder where the last 11 years went. Enjoy it while it lasts and don't forget to stop to smell the flowers on the way.

Well, chrisrolinski, I guess you have no reasons to drop. In your case, I guess you are happy with what you do so it is not that you have given much but that you truly like your PhD.

And yes, I have the idea that years go very fast and suddenly your twenties are all gone. However, I believe it all comes down to whether you like your PhD or not. If you don't, you are certainly wasting your youth, right?

You're probably right - I suppose having chosen my research topic that I am personally interested in makes it easier to bear when the going is tough. I can't think of anything else I would rather be doing in my twenties though - apart from touring Northern Europe with a backpack.

Chris, you can still do that. Take 6 weeks off over summer, take your backpack and just do it. It won't affect your PhD progress and it's good to have a break. Today I just decided something crazy as well, I'm gonna get a motorcycle license over the next few months, buy a machine and just drive off into the sunset (in September, hopefully). Wanted to do that for more than seven years, but never did. I will still continue my PhD but life is too short to waste it.

I am planning on saving a bit of cash and putting it into the bank account I set up years ago as a teenager for the future (it has nothing in it!)...this is becoming my 'Northern Europe Account'. I plan to spend at least a month touring across Scandinavia with parts of Russia and Germany. I'll spend the most time in Sweden because I am more familiar with it and speak passable/vaguely inteligible Swedish. I have accrued holiday time, but plan to do it before I go into my third year. So I have a year and six months of saving and PhD to go.

Good luck with your plans too!!

venturin12, yes I would say leave sooner. But similar to Chris, I felt I was already committed right at the start of my PhD because I had previously worked on the project as an undergrad...

I guess most, if not all PhD students get very frequent emotional ups and downs.
People like me with low EQ have to find ways to get rid of negative feelings, or else
we all have to see a psychiatrist (In fact, I did see a psychiatrist once)!