As 2025 comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the year that followed the completion of my PhD. Tbf, I’ve done a fair share of that reflection while I was co-writing a piece titled ‘The Year of the Scholar’ for The Scholarly Letter (link in bio). It really gave me a way to take stock of how my thinking, values, and sense of self have shifted over the past year. Finishing a PhD brings a particular kind of freedom. When I was doing my PhD, my life had been structured by clear milestones, predefined goals, and a sense of predictability. But when that structure disappeared after I finished earlier this year, the openness I encountered was far from liberating. If anything, it was disorienting. I think it was especially so because I knew I didn’t want to remain in academia in its conventional form but still felt very committed to research and scholarly work. If you’ve followed me since earlier this year, you may have sensed that uncertainty. I was having a major identity crisis (t...