Travesty of a Doctoral Student

Doctoral studies... Man o Man, the last 3 years has been a life defining experience for me and it is still not done (I have another 2 more years to go)...When I stepped into the program, my pea sized brain did tell me to perceive Doctoral studies as an exteneded Masters program. I thought all I need to do is get done with 15 courses and do a Thesis, and viola I would a tag in front of my name. As semesters and stats courses progressed, one thing stared at me straight was "my studpidity", that Doctoral studies is a different league game..When i told my advisor in my Masters program that I am going to join a PhD program, he spent hours and hours trying to tell me pitt falls to avoid in a Doctoral program.. I now wish, i should have given much more thought then rather than steaming off in my own fantasy land..One of the first problems I had during my initial PhD days, was the need to confront my self image. I am person who hate to gossip around, dont like to talk about my life with people whom i dont know and most of all a sharp shooter.. Gosh, the first semester for me was a disaster.. I was plastered by all sorts of names.. I was called a Loner, bcos i worked from sun set to sun rise.. I was called most unsociable person, bcos i dont gossip..and most importantly my colleagues started pulling my personal life for anything and everything they wanted to talk abt me.. I also had to fight with the ghost of being brought up in a British format schooling system, where Profs were thought as Guru's, with a respect and with a decorum of what should be spoken with them and what shouldnt be...It all ended up one final day, when a kind hearted Prof came up to me and told me what was happening at the back of me..It took a couple of weeks to strategize my attack plan... First thing, i did was try to rekindle the conversation I had with my ex-advisor and follow what he asked me to do, i.e. never step in the politics in the department but always make none steps on you..I took a couple of more weeks to get a name for me in the classes, then started taking care of my colleagues..Man, when I was in India, I thought Westerners were all well mannered. But i was wrong, human mind never changes irrespective of whether he is from Aminjikarai or Atlanta..Instead of changing my belief about how to get work done, just because other people dont like me, I made sure that the way I do is viewed as a cult and taking pride in doing it. Over the last 2 years, I just didnt give a chance for people to speak about me..Still I am considered as unsocial by those poor souls, who cant understand that I believe not going on debt by eating out everyday and also want to keep a healthy life..To top it off, getting any thing done in my department, no matter it is about getting funded for a conference or decide on research topic for a project, you have to take care of a multi-functional regression. Earlier, when i used to see my friends working their ass off in the industry, i used to think that I am missing people managenebt skills which my friends are getting every day. Now, i know that I am getting even more than what my friends are getting..I no more complain about it...
Being a Doctoral student has surely showed me what little in the world and in our life, that we can control.. and the best way to take care of life is fret about things you can control and take "ONE DAY AT A TIME"..