Bitter? Who's bitter?

The thing I really wonder about is this: if graduate school is supposed to be about growth and scholarship and all that, then why does it just destroy you? I used to have self confidence. I used to believe in myself but now I feel worthless. I’m afraid that everything I ever do will end like this, an enormous mess of failure. Deep inside I am certain that I can’t actually do anything. On the outside I know this is ridiculous. Of course I’m capable of all kinds of things. But deep down, I just feel broken. If graduate school is hell, then I should be ecstatic about leaving. Well, I am, sometimes. But sometimes I feel like a dog slinking away with its tail between its legs.

But no! I won't let my professor put me down. I'm better than that. Just because you don't have a PhD doesn't make you a lesser person or a stupid person, right? Just keep telling yourself that and one day you'll believe it... No! I was like Cinderella's stepsisters trying to squeeze their feet into the glass slipper (or the ivory tower.) Now I can stretch my wings. I will find happiness without a doctorate. Plenty of happy people don't have PhDs. Actually, most of the people I know who do have PhDs are miserable and stressed out. Take my professor - he must be decaying inside to behave the way he has. All the professors and post-docs I know seem pretty unhappy even though they are at one of the top universities in the nation. I know I'd rather be doing something else so I should just go do it. Life is too short to be this unhappy.