One issue with academic twitter is that negative experiences are far more popular than positive ones. When you're having a rough go of it, it's cathartic to commiserate and know you're not alone. Positive experiences, on the other hand, don't land well. They read like bragging.

But, taken together, I think this creates a really skewed impression of what academia is like. The gestalt impression you get from reading lots of these posts is depressing, and, based on some recent feedback I've received, unduly anxiety-provoking for incoming students.

So, in honour of the incoming graduate student cohort, here are some truly unpopular perspectives on academia (a thread):

I loved grad school. My labmates and my mentors were all really supportive. The lack of structure felt like total, unfettered freedom to me. Even accounting for the stress of the job market, my grad school years were some of the best years of my life.

My postdoc was amazing too. It felt like an extended vacation, or maybe a sabbatical. Texas is warm. I spent a lot of time by the pool. I didn't work all that hard.

Sometimes though, I do work hard. Sometimes I work right through a weekend, or a holiday break, or even through the night. When I want to, because I choose to. I don't regret it. I wouldn't go back and change how I've spent my time in any way.

I've never been sexually harassed in the workplace. Not by colleagues, not by students, not at conferences. None of it.

I've never been screwed over by a collaborator or colleague. No one has tried to take credit for my ideas, or take lead authorship where they didn't deserve it. Generally, my experience has been that people are kind, and act in good faith.

This career requires a lot of moving. That's exhausting and stressful, but traveling is also the bomb. I've lived a lot of places and each one was an adventure. Each move has led to so many new friends and memories. I wouldn't trade any of that.

I don't feel like an imposter. Insecure at times? Sure. Anxious about my performance? Definitely. But generally, I know I'm a badass bitch, and no one seems to truly know what they're doing anyway.

Academia has plenty of structural problems and challenges. This thread is in no way meant to dismiss or downplay them. I also have my share of privileges--including luck!--and I don't mean to downplay those, either. There's certainly some strong survivorship bias here.

I'm not saying my experience is normative. I am saying that it's possible. People do have a good time in academia, even if it doesn't tend to get tweeted or retweeted. So if you're here and you're loving life, you're not doing it wrong, and you're not the only one. /endthread