Livre d'Or

Relatedly, I've found the 'oh of course it seems like it's dreadful, everyone's PhD experience is dreadful' refrain to be both very supportive and very unhelpful. It's great to know that even people who seem very successful and sorted had a rocky start, but at times I've known that I'm not doing well and not working hard and having people say 'oh, everyone feels like that, itll be alright in the end' rang really hollow. Liv was one of the only people I knew who honestly said, 'Yes, sometimes it doesn't work out at all and you can pour years of work into a project which is fruitless, or be shafted by your supervisor, and it sucks and life is unfair', and I really appreciated that at the time because there seems to be this rather softsoapy narrative of 'oh, it SEEMS hideous and it is hideous, of course, but eventually it's all fine'.