You might be thinking ‘why would someone want to be a grad student for life?’ Grad school is so demanding, frustrating, all about reading research papers, lots of sleepless nights and most certainly sleep deprived days. Why would one want to have such a rigorous routine for the rest of their life?

I believe we should all be grad students for life because we should be ambitious, always strive for excellence, seek to overcome that next challenge and be what we were meant to be — problem solvers and engineers.

Find out what you don’t know

For me, being a grad student — especially here at Texas A&M’s College of Engineering — is a challenging, yet interesting, phase of my life. It’s a phase where I am learning so much, and yet I feel as though I do not know enough. It’s a phase where I am teaching a class at noon and by dusk, I am sitting in my own class as a student. It’s a phase where I am turning in my assignments one minute and switching tabs to grade assignments the next. Sometimes I feel confused about my coursework, and I worry if my students understand what I just taught them.

Learn to teach yourself and others

Sometimes, being a grad student makes me feel like a child all over again. There are days when I am chasing after an idea and I go to bed wondering if a new concept will work out. I long to fill up my tabula rasa (blank slate), and I feel amazing satisfaction from knowing, at last, that making a difference in my own way and having this desire to produce commendable work is so fulfilling. It is a process of continuous learning and teaching, learning not just for ourselves but also to teach others.

I feel amazing satisfaction from knowing, at last, that making a difference in my own way and having this desire to produce commendable work is so fulfilling.

Appreciate life

After saying all this, I should add that, despite the beauty and the addiction of it all, do not be so indulged in grad work that you forget to live life. Do not be tempted to chase that paper — and I mean this literally, as in those papers you aim to publish and, of course, the Benjamins.

Be all you can be. Who says you can’t be it all? Learn that instrument, go on that trip, write that story, start that hobby, tell that crush how you feel, and remember what it was like to want to grow up.