#phd era

And I, a trans and autistic PhD student who had, in the 24 hours prior to that very moment, finished my second watch through of DS9 and then promptly went to a party where my friends (including another trans person who had just finished their first watch of DS9) and I had discussed DS9 off and on for a couple of hours, was absolutely JUMP SCARED by the specificity of that quote.

as an undergrad thinking about going for a doctorate (but physics not psychology but anyway), i was wondering if you had any stories from grad school that you're willing to share.

i know theres probably stark differences between fields of PhD study but im super interested about the Experience in general

have a nice day!!! thank you!! :)

In my first year of the program there was a TA who was 1) a huge pervert, 2) a married dad of 3, and 3) barely literate. He taught us how to do IQ tests using sexually inappropriate jokes, and his go-to pickup line was “so are you wearing any underwear?” He was a member of some weird shitty church and he had a HUGE issue with my gender identity so he only ever referred to me by my name on the class roster, which was my chosen name. Hearing a middle-aged porn-addled evangelical loser say “Lizardho left lizardho’s book by lizardho’s backpack, can someone give it to Lizardho?” Was actually a highlight of my day because I think it’s fucking hilarious to get transphobes in such a spot where they have to be professional but can’t seem to handle the task of being a little nice to someone they don’t like. I think it is especially entertaining to see how far they go to avoid saying pronouns because they’re afraid they’ll be damned for the rest of time for saying “she” to someone with a (frankly disappointing) penis.

For a helpful story - I had to turn in an assignment late. It was when @cintailed and I were long distance and I forgot about the time difference. I sent an email to a professor with a full screenshot of my documents folder including a screenshot of the current time AND the last time the document was edited. She made an exception for me to turn in the document late and that was a life saver for my GPA.