‘You should think about applying to Harvard’, my professor said to me, ‘You stand a good chance of getting in.’

I have to admit, I only briefly considered doing my Ph.D. in the US. I really didn’t give it much thought. MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, …they’re all top notch schools for any subject, including Mathematics.

Obviously a doctoral degree from Harvard or Princeton would be quite an honour. Obviously I would get an extraordinary opportunity to extend my research with an established supervisor at any of these institutions. And obviously, the ability to say, ‘I’m doing my doctorate at Harvard’ would be like, totally awesome.

But I just can’t help feeling that I’d like something different from North American life.

I’m sick of it. I’m sick of Canada. And I’m even more sick of Ottawa. There’s nothing left for me here except for heartache and bad memories.

Some of my referees — bless their hearts — have told me that my first and second choices for grad school would be delighted in accepting me in a Ph.D. (or rather, D.Phil) program. And between Harvard, Princeton, MIT, and my actual choices, it’s a pretty close race anyways.

It’s time that I left Ottawa. It’s time I hauled my ass off this goddamn continent. And it’s time I focused on establishing myself among the elite academia of the world.

But damn it. I’m so nervous I could wet myself.