a thread: it has been more than two years since i handed in my dissertation revisions and was done with my degree. i am still working through things that happened in the PhD. i am STILL rebuilding my sense of self. i am nowhere near the only one who feels like this.
i went looking through my journals from my phd and i can't tell you the number of times i have written "keep your head down." that was my entire survival strategy for the phd - become as small as possible so that i attracted the least amount of trouble.
also written over and over again: "you know who the safe people are: talk to them" and "you have worth, you are going to be okay. you will survive this." "you just have to make it one more year" "you can do this, even if no one else thinks you can"