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PhD Year 1: Joy and Rejection | Hongyu Hè

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A reflection on my 1st year of the PhD, where joy and rejection came together to reshape how I think about research, solitude, and life.

Foreword Time flies, especially when you’re enjoying it. It’s already been two years since I decided to join Princeton . Now that I’m in the second half of my second year, I want to look back on how I’ve been “philosophizing” this Doctor of Philosophy journey. My first year was full of pure joy and harsh rejections. Those two words feel diametrically incompatible at first glance, but my experience doesn’t make sense without both. What I wanted from year one I started my PhD with two goals: (1) publish a paper in my first year, and (2) fully experience American college life. I set the first goa

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