Graduate school is a time warp. I'm sure of it. This month, I entered my seventh year of graduate school. The past six years of work seemed to move at radically different paces from each other.

The first two years went by fairly quickly. There was a lot to accomplish: making new friends, completing class requirements, doing rotations in four different labs, choosing a lab and finally starting my thesis work. Things were moving along and I was moving right along with everything.

In my third and fourth years, time felt as if it was slowing down and my life dragged. A major project that seemed to be going well imploded, as did a long-term relationship. Every day was endless, the simplest tasks took too long and I accomplished little. There were moments when I felt time was standing still.

In my fifth year, work began to move along again and life accelerated. Friends and classmates started defending and graduating. Meetings with my thesis committee became more frequent and more important. In my sixth year, the pressures to finish a project, to write a paper, to make decisions about postgraduate school employment pushed the speed of time into warp drive.

My head spins when I think how quickly those 12 months passed. I'm nervous that the next 12 will move even faster. There is too much to accomplish, and if time continues to move at this pace, I'm afraid I won't be able to do it all.