Finishing my PhD was a strange time. I remember a weird few weeks of tidying my desk, taking folders home on the train, clearing stuff into recycling, and then a gap of months of trying to figure out, “What now?”
How do you want things to change for you?
- Will your PhD journey have a gradual conclusion, tidying up loose ends, leaving things in their right place while you prepare to start a new expedition?
- Will it simply finish one day, a red line drawn across your calendar to mark the end of one era and the start of another?
- Will it just change? Will you realise one day that you’ve moved on and you didn’t see it happen?
Finish your thesis, prepare for your viva, but spare a little thought for that Future-You, who will one day find that they’re done with their PhD.
What can you do to help prepare them for that situation?
