He was told that he was selected from a pool of some twenty students. Three other universities, although smaller ones, also gave him admission. These options gave him strange and powerful sense that he had excelled in his life. Now that he’s a graduate student in one of prestigious programs at a high ranked university, he believed everything is going to be easier for him in life.
And then he entered the department and saw the scientists in real sense, unlike when he met them during recruitment weekend when everyone seemed cool and laidback. But now they’re all talking science and technology. None of their conversations veered of from the common theme: research work. The list of research papers, patents and awards on the walls of corridor terrified him. The fellow grad students, after hi and hello and customary smile, continued their work: despite the fact they looked overworked and overwhelmed. Still they continued.
For a moment, he thought he chose the wrong place. Next moment, he thought otherwise, it dawned upon him that all grad programs must be like this, with little variations. So, after walking around in the ‘real’ department, he sat down on this lab desk. A weakness, not the power which he felt till he stepped in the department, had settled in his heart: will he be able to work like these grad students or finish the grad program or able to write these many research papers etc? He didn’t tell this to anyone even though everyone who has stepped in this program for the first time must have felt the variation of the same experience.
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