Is this in line with my previous post, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?”
The grim reality of being in a graduate program!
I had to laugh at the statement “for many, the appeal of the “life of the mind” – being buried in books and surrounded by the intellectual elite – is the ultimate fantasy” because it is so true. In a way I was really fortunate that I had several friends in the middle of or recently finished with doctoral degrees when I began mine, so I had a heavy dose of reality to counter my fantasy. Even so, I often find myself realizing that like a stubborn teenager who thinks “it won’t happen to me,” many of the very things my friends warned me about are indeed part and parcel of graduate school.
Via: Online PhD Programs
JaeRan Kim 
Even if it’s a heavy dose of reality, it’s great that you’re pursuing something that’s important to you. I admire folks like you who have the guts to finish their PhD programs. I for sure couldn’t finish.