A few years have passed since my last Ph.D. update, so I figure it’s time for one. Since then, I’ve jumped through a few more hoops of the program, and navigated extra demands outside of it. But what I’ve learned really comes down to this: almost nothing goes according to plan. And as time goes on, it becomes increasingly harder to separate the Ph.D. from the rest of my life. Let me explain. I’ll start where I left off. As expected, I finished my courses by Christmas of 2024. (Insert applause here.) But then—my supervisors recommended that I take another course for credit. This kind of uprooted my plans to…