A pilgrimage through a PhD journey
by Giampiero Tarantino
Having completed my PhD pilgrimage a few years ago, I can now reflect, through a considerably less stressed lens, on the nature of my experiences.
Countless times, I have been asked about the experience of pursuing a PhD: ‘Why did you decide to do a PhD?’, ‘What is it like to do a PhD?’, ‘Were you stressed while writing the thesis?’. Today, I can undoubtedly state that a PhD is subject to considerable fluctuations throughout someone’s lifetime, and, in my case, the PhD journey was characterised by alternating highs and lows, akin to cycles of peaks and troughs. During the peaks, there was a strong sense of commitment, confidence, and excitement in the work I was trying to achieve. During the troughs, there was a sense of dejection, insecurity about the whole project, and uncertainty about my own existentialism. I can still vividly recall, in the dim winter Irish mornings and well before the jarring sound of my phone alarm, asking myself what I was doing there.
Now, after a few years since the discussion of my thesis, to say the PhD journey was rather full of peaks is an understatement. It was such a breath of fresh air, that gave me the boost I needed to drive my life towards a fulfilling adventure.
PhD graduation day (16.06.2023) at University College Dublin, Ireland.
Research literature is full of articles highlighting the difficulties faced by PhD research students. For example, a relatively recent scientific article examined the factors associated with the mental health and psychological well-being of early-stage doctoral students. Here is the article if you fancy reading it: Mental health and psychological wellbeing in the early stages of doctoral study: a systematic review.
However, I would like to shift your attention to the PhD silver linings, and I would like to start with a picture. A work conducted by Camille Bernery and colleagues (Research Culture: Highlighting the positive aspects of being a PhD student) has shown the several benefits that embrace a PhD journey.
The positive aspects of doing a PhD, (Bernery et al, 2022)
I can easily say that, during my PhD project, I ticked most of the aspects depicted in the picture. Despite all the difficulties, doing a PhD is all that is illustrated in that picture, and for someone who is driven by a curious mind, there is not better place in the world. During a PhD you learn to conduct research, write research papers, disseminate your work to scientific and lay audiences, teach different modules, and—perhaps most importantly—learn how to think. You learn to frame a question when the question itself is still blurry; to make decisions with incomplete information; to tolerate ambiguity without paralysing yourself; and to keep moving even when progress is invisible for weeks. You become fluent in failure in a way that is oddly empowering: experiments that do not work, papers that come back bleeding with comments, talks that do not land as you hoped, which each one that forces you to recalibrate, refine, and try again. Over time, you begin to recognise that these moments are not detours from the PhD; they are the PhD. And somewhere between the late nights, the library silence, the conference corridors, and the small celebrations after a breakthrough, you build a toolkit that reaches far beyond the thesis: intellectual resilience, a disciplined curiosity, and the confidence that you can teach yourself what you do not yet know.
Looking back now, what stays with me is not only the final document I defended, but the person I became while trying to write it. The PhD did not simply give me a title or a line on my CV; it gave me a way of navigating the world, one that is anchored in curiosity and strengthened by perspective. The troughs were real, and they mattered, but they no longer define the story. What defines it, at least for me, is the accumulation of quiet wins: the first time an idea crystallised into a hypothesis, the moment a supervisor’s “this is good work” felt earned, the first acceptance email, the first student who told me a lecture helped them understand something. Those experiences, and the growth hidden inside the harder days, were the true peaks. And if there is one conclusion I can draw with certainty, it is this: a PhD is not merely an academic endeavour; it is a formative journey that can, with all its turbulence, become a genuine breath of fresh air. It is a journey that opens doors, broadens horizons, and sets the compass for a more intentional, fulfilling adventure.
Giampiero Tarantino 