Every PhD student knows about that time of year when the defence announcements come flooding in. The two months leading up to graduation mark the time when everyone seems to be defending their thesis. Because I am nearing the end of my sixth year, the defence season is a somewhat sensitive time for me. The notices I've been getting recently are mostly for my classmates, the people with whom I started graduate school.

Like a race, some people who set out at the same time as me have already moved on, some are now crossing the finishing line and some still have a way to go. Notices of their upcoming defences generate mixed emotions. I'm genuinely happy for my friends, sad to see them go and sad to be left behind.

But the defences of the classes both above and below mine generate mostly negative emotions. For those who started graduate school after me, I can only be envious that their path was shorter than mine. For those who started graduate school before me, I worry that I too could find myself in that seventh, eighth or ninth year. I know logically that the length of graduate education is influenced by many factors outside my control. Still, as this defence season begins, I truly hope that I am not around to witness the next one.