A PhD transforms you in ways you don't expect. You imagine balance and friendships, but the program becomes all-consuming, eroding your old life. What emerges is a fundamentally different person with a new identity.
Before a doctorate or a Ph.D. program, you may have thought, "Oh my God, I can do all these amazing things and I've got friends and I've got activities." And then when you get into a doctoral program, it starts to consume you and it can start to potentially eat up some of your life, but it's also changing you and you'll come out the other side a different person and have a whole new life.
