Musical chairs

When you want to pursue a postgrad degree, say a PhD or DPhil or whatever you want to call it, the trouble is not to get accepted into the degree, nor is it to get a free RTS place at the uni. The biggest problem is to find a desk to call your own for the duration of your studies. Although the uni is obliged to provide each doctoral candidate with a desk, a computer (that works), a cabinet that can be locked (with the key) and access to a printer (again one that actually prints stuff when you want it), this is not as easy as it sounds. There are no free desks and everybody that has one allocated to them holds on to it as desparately as if we were playing musical chairs. Yet the irony is that most postgrad cubicles seem to be empty most of the time. Uncluttered, though dirty, they show there yellow surfaces to the passers by: no papers or books anywhere in sight and the happy deskowners are nowhere to be seen. So why oh why can't I get one of these nice deserted cubicles, pronto? I'll clean it myself!

Supervisors

You cannot do a postgrad degree without having a supervisor. A supervisor has to be a superwoman/man, because they have to be knowledgable on your subject (preferably the most knowledgable), they need to be nice (or you might kill them before you finish your degree, which will result in huge delays), they must have time (or they won't ever get to reading your stuff until it is too late) and finally, they must be willing to supervise you (which mostly doesn't earn them anything extra, but is very time demanding nevertheless). In short: lots of wannabe-postgrads are desparately seeking a supervisor. I see the emails come in with different proposals, send out to all staff, hoping to find one.

I was lucky, I found the supervisor first (and he is all that) and he even agreed to take me on as a student, before I put in the proposal. So what more could I want? Well, first of all I would like to be not so intimidated by this lovely, non-threatening, friendly person. Somehow I feel like a first year undergrad, afraid to show him anything I've written or tell him anything I thought off, or ask questions (ouch!). I really want to make an impression of being smart and this makes me cautious to a ridiculous level, for fear of looking too stupid for the job. This person is there to help me, for goodness sake! The only positive effect is that I can relate better to my own students, who are first year undergrads. Sometimes they get terrified by me, now I know why.

Secondly, I need a little bit more direction every now and then. Sometimes I leave a meeting with 10 new questions instead of 2 answers on the questions I came in with. Solving the first problem will probably positively affect the second. Last week I actually had a meeting which gave me an answer, which yesterday made a quarter fall in my brain. Eureka! I've got a starting point, hurray!!