While I wish I were graduating, it is coming soon enough. (Although maybe this whole arrangement of not defending until this summer and walking next May may work out better anyways for my family travel arrangements).
I went to my department's graduation again to see students that I've TAed as juniors (now graduating seniors obviously), PhD candidates who officially received their Master's degree, and my graduate classmates who are now officially Doctors (of Philosophy). While I'm envious of the gigantic diploma they receive (it's twice the size of my undergraduate one), I think I'm more envious of the next stages of their life that are moving onto. Not everyone knows what path they're going on or yet, but that too is part of life. The more important thing is moving forward with time.
If we stagnate, we become dull. I took a year off (voluntarily or involuntarily, I don't really know) between graduating from UIUC and starting graduate school. I didn't have an amazing reason too, like traveling the world, working (in fact the job market in 2010 was very tough and hence why I was unemployed), or conducting some breakthrough research.
I spent a summer more or less jobless. Although I would swing by the lab once in a while to synthesize some material, I had lost a lot of interest as well after working in the same lab for 2 years. We even had a new project to transfer the materials embedded fiber-glass system to a carbon system for higher loading and perhaps more promising applications. But I just found myself burnt from work.
So I found myself with the least research-relevant year. While working on my graduate school applications, I worked in a Frozen Yogurt store first as a cashier but eventually as a night-manager to handle closing and training of new employees. I worked as a teaching assistant in a biomaterials laboratory handling cell cultures and preparing materials for the students, alternating teaching the lab class with the instructor, and grading lab notebooks. I volunteered to work for my friend in sales in his new t-shirt company. I was constantly forced out of my comfort zone to interact with others. I learned a very different skillset from when I was in the college classroom.
I wasn't always sure if taking that year off was the right decision. I had the option to go to UCSD for graduate school, or I could've always worked a little bit harder to find a job. But we play with the cards that are dealt to us and move on. When my year was up, I didn't want to leave Champaign-Urbana for all the experiences I had, but it was time for me to move forward again, to have new experiences, and to not stagnate.
As I'm finishing up my thesis now, I might not have made it to graduating this May, but I'm also ready to move forward past my PhD career.
