Just the beginning

A lot of people seem to regard the PhD as the epitome of one's career. I've moved through the education system (including spending 16 years on the other side of the desk), from the Bachelor level, to Master's, and then to the Doctorate. As if there's nowhere left to go. In fact, the truth is nearly opposite to that.

You see, in reality the PhD is the beginning of a new career. In the same way that a teacher has finished their Bachelor's degree in a particular specialist field and is now entering a Teacher Training programme to learn how to be a classroom teacher, I'm entering a Scientist Training programme, if you will. During their training, a teacher goes from being a learner to an educator. Analogously, I'm going from being a learner of other peoples' discoveries, to a discoverer of my own. I've learnt how to read about other peoples' achievements; Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Marie Curie and Albert Einstein. Now I'm learning how to make my own way in the academic world.

By the time I've finished my PhD, adding another set of letters after my name, I'll have published more scientific papers, made more discoveries. But more than that, I'll have learnt how to add to the growing body of scientific information. And that's really the point.

This isn't the end of my journey. This is just the beginning.