Second year blues: The realities of my doctorate so far

Harriet Lowe (@HarrietLoweGRN) is a PhD Candidate in Applied Linguistics at the University of Greenwich in the UK. In this story, she talks about the gap between her initial expectations of PhD life and the actual reality. She also shares that although it took her awhile to get used to the peculiarities of an academic career, she grew quite fond of it once she learnt how to mold her journey to suit her.

This story was originally published on May 8, 2017, on Harriet’s blog, (available here) and has been republished here with permission.

I never actually had time to process that I was actually doing a PhD.

I applied whilst studying an Italian language and culture course on the beautiful Lake Garda, spending my days sweating in a lecture theatre until 1pm, to then eat a huge lunch and fry on the beach for the rest of the afternoon. I returned completely relaxed and extremely tanned, considering I’m English. Once home, I found out the Italian air-con had dried out my lungs and given me whooping cough, and I stayed in bed for 2 weeks.

Without confirmation of my successful PhD application, I returned to Greenwich, moved into halls and worked as a coordinator for the Undergraduate Freshers’ Fortnight. By October, with an unofficial-feeling email and handshake from the Professor, I was already weeks into my PhD.

Then, I got cocky. In November, I was upset that I didn’t have an office. My dream of a PhD was swanning about the department, being known by everyone, with little trinkets on my office desk. In reality, I was sitting with undergraduates in the University library, grumpily shuffling the pile of books and papers to fit around the computer, if someone decided to sit next to me.

Thinking that my position was so special, I went straight to the Postgraduate Research Office and gave them a piece of my mind. Well… that was a mistake.

Want to know how the the rest of Harriet’s PhD journey turned out? Read the rest of her story here.