Yesterday, I found myself giving advice I could use myself to a friend who is also close to finishing his PhD. I told him how the last stage is the toughest and most frustrating. It is not easy to measure progress by words written because there is not all that much left to write. But, hammering the stuff that has already been written into a coherent form feels like a Herculean task. Yet, it is not an impossible task, although I am sure every PhD student feels so at some point. If you have reached this far, your PhD is doable, and you are on the way to making an original contribution to your field. Yes, fleshing out that contribution feels like pulling teeth out. But tooth pain doesn't last forever and neither will this stage of my PhD. I just have to keep the faith and do my best. Easier said than done but that is true of most things in life.
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