It’s the end of the first week of my PhD In an attempt to record my experience while it’s still fresh I write my first blog post on a train ride back home. The weird nostalgia for something I don’t even know hits me slightly.
The campus is the same as I remember it. I haven’t been a student for a hot minute there. It feels good to be in a student role again – my comfort zone. But it’s not really like being a regular student, isn’t it? Those from bachelor’s are in a completely different world. Even if they don’t know it, they had only scratched the surface of the academic experience. That is how it’s supposed to be though. The sense of community and student life is usually at its most vivid during the bachelor’s. Most of the students I am taking classes with are from master’s studies. Grad school, grad school but different… They complain about the number of readings they need to do. There’s this anxiety related to the master thesis research and writing. Some of them no doubt think about whether to continue onto PhD But it’s a different continent of the grad world – master studies. As someone who was a master’s student only half a year ago, I can attest that it’s a world of difference being on a PhD compared to a master’s.
I am not a research assistant or any type of employee at the Uni I am doing my PhD at. Long story short – international students are not allowed to work as anything lower than a professor position in the governmental Universities in Turkey. Do I think it’s unfair? Yes, but I also knew that going in. My focus will be on learning the most I can and being the best at research I can be.
After attending 6 classes this week I am beat. Even though I will be taking on only 3 classes they have quite an intensive workload – a lot of readings. Yes, PhD students also complain about readings too.
I felt oddly alone in my experience this week, but even more so calm? I guess since I did my master thesis during the pandemic, alone in my room and survived I am not afraid anymore. But it’s only the beginning and I expect stuff to get more intense in any case. One thing is sure though – I am beyond excited.
Phd lemonade 