over coffee my friend and i talked about our upcoming conference trips. we agreed we should go. away. then come back, but go. anyway. away.

i’ve been back in brisbane for about two weeks now. no, three.

it’s been surprisingly wonderful. in fact, i knew it’d be good so it wasn’t that surprising. but it’s certainly been better than i thought. i think, i’m sure, it’s the people here or gone.

i left a year ago.
i started with the oxford internet institute summer doctoral programme. then i had a number of conferences in various parts of the world (including australia), and of course, my two fieldwork trips to seoul. the first research fieldwork led to my changing one of the three fundamental compenents of my research, and the participation rate was a bit lower than i had hoped, so the second one became a necessity rather than a luxury add-on. eventually i got the data i needed. and before coming back to australia, i went to india.

i was definitely wandering there. a lot. even when i was suffering from the lack of oxygen in leh, i kept wandering. there were moments when i felt death, and when i finally learned to be humble, and learned to accept kindness as well as defeat. at the same time, i worked on - with the other co-authors - a paper, i submitted a travel grant application, and i sent a consent form to a publisher for a book chapter now in press. important things were happening along with other important things. there was nothing i lost there except for those i wanted to lose.

i believe in the importance of playing. i believe it’s as important as other basic human needs such as eating, sleeping, and excreting. my phd is one step closer toward spreading and actualising this notion around the world - when we’re building a city, when we’re designing a social network, when we’re helping others, and so on.

while i was travelling, i found myself keep looking at parts of life that’s foreign to me through the familiar lens of play - more specifically that of mobile play culture. i was voluntarily stuck in this conceptual world, and exploration of other parts of the world only expanded this smooth world of mine.

but supervisors. yes. where were the great guiding souls? well, they were on skype, facebook, messenger, and emails - with me. and i came back to brisbane for a couple of weeks so that we could meet face-to-face. as a current phd student, and personally, no, i don’t see the absolute necessity for ftfs. however, i see my supervisors as mentors rather than mere advisors in a general institutional sense, so physical copresence is always welcome and joyous. but from the strictly managerial side of things, it’s not a must.

from my own experience, i’ve learnt that phd is more than a noun. it’s real and unreal at the same time; it keeps you going and consumes you (sometimes seemingly completely), and it reveals doubts as you resolve them both intellectually and emotionally. it’s a lifetime commitment. you will be over-qualified for … anything. you’re phd’ed.

in australia at least, the researchscape prefers young occupants - fresh honours graduates get two ticks when people with their masters have to fight for that one more extra tick to add to the given one, for example. some clever souls have figured it all out. they’re cool. but some - in fact, many including myself- have no idea when they rush to the glory land with a hope to score a scholarship and eventually a nice piece of paper saying you’re rather smart. here we forget it’s not a race. it’s a journey. cliche, but painfully true.

if one’s really not sure if they want to do phd, then it’s probably a good idea not to do it. it’s an uphill path right till the end. but if they decide to continue though with some big and small doubts, then luckily, in most cases the phd candidate gets to go to at least one place that’s new with a full or partial funding. and if one has means and willingness to phd while away, then go, i’d say without hesitation. go away with phd. and get away with it. you’ll find yourself phd’ing wonderfully passionately later.

at least that’s what happened to me in india.

now back in brisbane, i’m getting away with it passionately ;)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 12:47 am and is filed under personal, phd. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.