Aerials
System of a Down
"Life is a waterfall
We're one in the river
And one again after the fall
Swimming through the void
We hear the word
We lose ourselves
But we find it all
(...)
And we are the ones that want to choose
Always want to play
But you never want to lose
Aerials, in the sky
When you lose small mind
You free your life
(...)
Aerials, so up high
When you free your eyes eternal prize"

Bring it on

Rocky Balboa talks about his grad school experience...

Eye Of The Tiger
Survivor
"So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
(...)
Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive"

Acknowledgments to my friend TT, who says "no more whining, time to fight!".

1984 for Prospective Students

In the book 1984, O'Brien briefs Winston about grad school...

Nineteen Eighty Four, Part III, Chapter III
George Orwell
"
The advisors seek power entirely for their own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.
Power is not a means, it is an end.
(...)
'How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?'
(...)
By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.
(...)
In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman.
(...)
If you want a picture of grad school, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever.'
(...)
"

Source: George-Orwell.org keeping the texts online.

Was Job a PhD student?

Below commented fragments of The World English Bible that indicate that Job was a PhD student.

2:11 Now when Job's three friends (...)

THREE friends?! What a social life!

7:3 so am I made to possess months of misery,
wearisome nights are appointed to me.

Classwork, conference deadlines, ppt presentation for the adviser...

19:20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Not a lot of sleep, huh? Lotta ramen noodles?

7:19 How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

Let the kid do research, will ya?

19:14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

Yes... they can't stand hearing about your thesis anymore!

3:13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet.
I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

Yes. You should have taken a real job.

9:29 I shall be condemned.
Why then do I labor in vain?

He knew nobody would read his thesis.

11:5. And I wish that God would speak with thee, and would open his lips to thee,
11:6. That he might show thee the secrets of wisdom,(...)

God was his advisor.

15:9 What do you know, that we don’t know?
What do you understand, which is not in us?

The thesis defense.

20:22. When he shall be filled, he shall be straitened, he shall burn, and every sorrow shall fall upon him.

And then he graduates. But no jobs were there for him. Oh sorrow...

Tick tick...

Time is probably the most meaningful word during grad school. And how ironic is it that "tick" can denote a sound like a clock/timer as well as a parasitic arachnid that feeds on blood of warm-blooded animals (i.e. adviser)?
Pink Floyd's "Time" didn't need a parody. It just is.

Time
Pink Floyd
"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells."

Dedicated to my friend CR.

Dr. Marley, B.

Bob was the first to suggest unionizing grad students.

Redemption Song
Bob Marley
"
(...)
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for senior faculty,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they keep our profits,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfill the book.

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?"