I was walking to my office today when I ran into someone I knew. We started chatting, and he said to me, "this is your fourth year as a graduate student, right?"

I said no - in that tone of voice so as to say its not even close. What year am I? I started counting...1,2,3...4.

Fuck it, I am fourth year. Graduating in five years is more or less out of the question. But to graduate in six, I will have to apply for jobs a little more than two years from now.

Scary to even think about it. I better come up with something really impressive pretty soon.