Back to the grind, after a fun weekend with friends
It's so hard to keep up good spirits when I constantly feel that no
matter how hard I work, it's never good enough. I know I shouldn't be
working for the approval of men, but the approval of God... but it so
helps things along when I hear a 'well done!' from a human every now
and then.

Another American PhD student here, Polly, says that it's particularly
difficult for Americans to hack it in Cambridge: supervisors
purposefully don't commend students to their faces, to avoid inflating
egos. They might be happy with your work and speak highly of you to
other people, but they'll never say so in front of you! How different
from the Cedarville world of my past.

...

Starting to look for jobs/postdocs/the next step
Maybe I could work for NASA in Cleveland. I feel that if I were to move
to the States next year, it would be out of loneliness. Is that a bad
reason to move? It seems I should make plans based objectively on
logic, ie academic strategy, not on emotions of weakness. God should be
enough. I shouldn't have to move near people whom I know will accept
me, to need human support and affirmation.