Why grad school rocks

Since my last post about grad school was depressing, I thought I would write a counterpoint post. Here are some reasons why grad school rocks.

• You get to spend all your time thinking about one project (once you finishing classes and TA requirements).
  
• You get paid to learn about cool stuff.
  
• You don't have any administrative responsibilites (like your poor advisor). Well, maybe the occasional hapless undergraduate research student to supervise.
  
• You get to travel to nice places for conferences.
  
• You are surrounded by lots of smart, educated people who are your age.
  
• You have the most flexible work schedule. (Hmm, how about ditching that colloquium to run to the hockey store?) The downside is that your parents expect you to come home for vacation all the time.
  
• Another excuse to continue living in that haven we call school.
  
• More opportunities to dabble in all your esoteric hobbies: art, history, literature, juggling, climbing, politics, music, etc.
  
• Reasons why it's better to be a grad student than a postdoc: Your advisor cuts you a lot more slack since you're not officially certified (no PhD yet); there is usually a much larger grad school community than postdoc community; you don't have to worry about getting a real job yet; you're still of sufficiently low status to joke around with your professors and not worry about the consequences.