#thank god i'm writing my thesis as a synopsis of my published papers and not a monograph

[bizarrelittlemew]

what people think being a phd student is like: groundbreaking research, cute academia outfits, lively classroom discussions during teaching, inspiring conferences, writing your thesis in film-worthy libraries and cute coffee shops

what being a phd student is actually like: imposter syndrome, forgetting that you even own nice clothes because you never use them, ending up on 3-4 more daily medications than when you started, trying to make your extremely niche research topic sound impactful on funding applications and getting rejected anyway, searching through 5 different calendars for a 25-minute window where all your supervisors can be there (2 of them won't make it anyway), doing multiple other projects before actually getting to the ones your thesis is about (at least you get your name on papers, which leads us to:), the whole soul-crushing publishing process, getting your patience tested by students who don't prepare for classes at all (but expect you to summarize and explain 3-4 lectures of stuff to them in 5 minutes during a hands-on tutorial), writing your thesis and putting together an assessment committee last minute, starting to feel nausea at the word "networking", experiencing levels of burnout you didn't know existed, university bureaucracy slowly but surely draining your will to live