There seems to be a phase that most PhD students go through. It is called the Valley of Shit. According to The Thesis Whisperer “The Valley of Shit is that period of your PhD, however brief, when you lose perspective and therefore confidence and belief in yourself. ”
It seems that I’m in there right now. I don’t know why this is happening now. But even physically I feel drained. And while I didn’t think of quitting I’m questioning my ability to finish this PhD.
One of the reasons I seem to struggle with my PhD is that my career feels like it stopped. I’m inside a cave. My peers are moving ahead with success and production while I’m stuck with my research and moving at the speed of a slug.

I also find myself too aware of my age. Though I’m in my mid thirties, I keep on feeling that I don’t have time to do other things that I want to do with my life. I know that is not true and that age is just a number and all of that fancy talk. But I can’t help feeling this.

The other issue is the lack of gratification through out my journey. I don’t know if I’m doing well because there are no measures for that. I haven’t submitted to any journals because I haven’t written much. I submitted to two local conferences and got one rejection and one acceptance. But that is about it.

So here I am giving some reasons to why I’m in that valley yet what I don’t know is how to get out of here. Maybe the best at the moment is to keep on going and walking and hopefully I will be out soon.

Wish me luck!