Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions!

I would apologise for having bothered you with all these emotional issues! I really should have directed my original question to my counsellor or my vicar, but you see, after moving to my new school I have no one to provide me with psychological support anymore!

For the most of the time I would keep myself busy by writing and publishing journal articles - and therefore make myself too tired to feel anything about my life. But these days, as I have just finished drafting an article, I became a bit emotional - possibly because I have rested too much!

One of the remedies that I can think of is to go to exchange later this year, and move myself to a bigger city which matches better with my lifestyle - a selected group of friends which I can share some sophisticated conversations with, a mellow church, and perhaps a helpful counsellor. I will try to make some good progress with my PhD research, so that my supervisor will be happy to let me go ahead.

Thanks again for all your help, and have a nice weekend!

Best,

Janice

Hello,

If you happen to be a PhD student in your early or mid twenties, may I ask if you have ever felt lonely, belonging to no where in the faculty?

I am asking this because I myself am a new PhD which has just turned twenty-five, and I have travelled to another side of this planet to join my new school. When socialising with others, I really feel a bit awkward... I feel that most of the new PhDs in my faculty are already five to seven years older than me, and perhaps because of this mini 'generation gap', we have different hobbies and lifestyles with each other. For example, I like to talk about relationships, shopping or travelling, whereas most of my colleagues like to talk about marriage or even their kids.

Alternatively, if I turn to socialise with the master students (which are usually around the same age with me), most of them will become defensive when they found out that I am a PhD. I think this is partially because that in this faculty, PhD students are sometimes asked to give tutorials to the masters and mark their exam papers - which has created a 'conflict of interest' and turned some of them away. And plus, talking with my master friends about how to fix an inhall exam or finding a job is not very interesting to me either.

So, here am I, sitting in my office and thinking that I belong to nowhere. Do you have the same issue with your life? How would you fix it? Oh and by the way, I would like to mention that I am currently in a small European city (I would almost call it a town), which has very limited lawyer's groups (I am a law researcher) or English-speaking churches.

Thanks for reading this, and have a nice weekend!

Best,

Janice