Life
My First Week of Grad School
I keep feeling that something is missing from grad school life. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I no longer have the excitement I felt when I first started undergrad. Every morning, I wake up thinking about what needs doing today, whether I should read papers tomorrow, and whether there's a slide presentation to prepare for the day after. I also took on a graduate administrative assistant role this semester. Although I don't have to keep office hours, the tasks, big and small, never seem to stop. It's starting to wear down my enthusiasm for everyday life a little...
I've also noticed the gap between my undergraduate friends and me getting wider. They've gone on to better schools, and when I look at myself, I feel a little ordinary. Still, more than anything, I'm happy for them. And honestly, I did feel pretty good when I first arrived. Settling into this new chapter has been nice. I spend most of my usual working time doing research in the lab, and I've started working out in my spare time. I'm only just learning, so I don't know how long I'll stick with it. Hopefully at least six months or a year...
I also have a few things to grumble about when it comes to agents. ChatGPT hasn't felt as smooth to use lately. It seems to check hashes at every opportunity; I could call it the hash-checking sage. My friends recommended GLM 5.3 through Zcode. They say it works well, and that it can do a little better than 5.6 Sol on certain tasks, especially long tasks with a lot of context. Overall, though, I still don't think it offers better value than a GPT subscription. And Claude Code is still the GOAT, but using it from China is a different story: in my experience, accounts can get banned almost immediately, and it seems to pay attention to usage times and language too. Losing a paid subscription to a ban would sting, so I've never really made CC my main tool. DeepSeek V4 Pro is pretty good as well, especially paired with Codex or Claude Code. Just watch the timing: I find it better value outside peak hours. Otherwise, I'd rather subscribe to GPT or Zhipu.
This is my first time sharing everyday life in this format, and somehow I've already rambled on this much. I still get caught up in anxiety and overthinking now and then, but life goes on, one step at a time. I hope we can all find a rhythm that works for us.
Written on September 4, 2026, caught in the tug-of-war between research and life.