Is PhD for Everyone?

Earlier I thought: Everyone should follow the same path. Everyone should pursue a PhD to belong to academia. It is something to pursue to prove yourself and your worthiness. It is something to achieve to belong and fit in the academic environment.

With experience and so much internal reflection, I reached into a dead end. I realized a harsh truth.

PhD is not for everyone. It can’t be for everyone. Honestly if we say it is for everyone, we are being unfair to ourselves and others.

We all are different and unique in our perspectives and approaches to life. We perceive life differently. We take different choices. Our preferences change. Our priorities also change with time and circumstances.

After struggling so much and dwelling myself in the mud of: You are not enough. You should prove yourself. I reached a point of acceptance. I painfully see this fact: The PhD is not for everyone and it never will be.

Looking at the environment and people in it, you can be blindly brainwashed and fooled. Especially if you exist in an environment where people don’t know and just follow the crowd.

In that kind of environment, you can’t be understood and you don’t need to be understood. People in that environment can easily think you are crazy or don’t make any sense.

But that’s ok. They are doing the best they can with the knowledge they have. And you are doing the best you can with the knowledge you have.

This clearly states that we all are separate from each other in our ways of thinking, feeling, dreaming and building our unique respected lives.

There is no need to feel shame or guilt when we approach our lives differently. Instead, we can add grace and compassion. This is our nature that we can’t deny. It is our uniqueness. And it is a clear evidence of our meaningful and divine existence from Allah.