Transitions: The Painful Truth of Finishing a PhD

It’s Not Pretty

This is not going to be a pep talk or have a quick fix bullet list in how to get better. This is the grim reality of the feeling of hopelessness many of us face when we finally finish.

Today I want to talk about transitioning from PhD to normal life. Because let’s face it, there is no way to live normally while doing a PhD. I won’t bother describing why, because anyone still reading at this point full knows why. It’s the trying to get back to a normal, fully functioning life that we’re still struggling with.

We May Be Intellectuals, But the Outside World Is All About the Money

Jobs. Careers. Paying back student loans. That’s what’s keeping me up at night. I have six months between finishing my dissertation and paying back what is an extortionate amount of tuition and living expenses. And rather stupidly, I chose a field with no career waiting for me at the end of it. I should be recovering, taking time for self-care, rebuilding the relationships I had to put on hold for the sake of academia, learning new skills, recovering mentally and physically from crippling anxiety and depression. Instead I’m desperately applying for every job in my area of interest and not getting even an acknowledgement back from any of them because I don’t have the expected qualifications, or desperately trying to cobble together streams of income in hopes they’ll be enough to help cover groceries and rent much less loan payments that are more than both the previously expenses combined. And all the time knowing that it’ll end with me saying “Hi, I’m Dr. Pym. Will that be for here or to go?”

I almost didn’t write this post. I’ve been told countless times to only have positive things on my blog. But I’m not going to pretend that the post-dissertation transition process is all peaches and cream. That’s just a dangerous lie. And I want my fellow transitioners to be prepared for the anxiety and depression that transition brings.

Despite It All

But it won’t stay this way forever. I have openly acknowledge the state that I am in and the causes. I have sought out my support network and have, for once, allowed myself to rely on it. The feelings of overwhelm will ebb and I will be able to restart y efforts to return to a normal, productive life.

And you will too. Hang in there.