doing a phd in linguistics from different points of view

So apparently there are different points of view here, as you have probably seen from the comments: some think that doing a PhD in linguistics is very interesting, and some think it's a mistake. Obviously it wont help if I start telling you how linguists analyse the meaning of the word "some" in the previous sentence :) In the spirit of this debate, I actually had quite interesting reactions today from people I've met on campus since it's the beginning of the term and it's getting busy around here. Again the reactions varied: one thought that it was impressive that I have the guts to do it, while another commented that "it's probably a lonely line of work". Well, it will make a lot of sense to know that the first was a young British undergrad just starting her first year of studies (and who actually guessed that I am 20 years old, very flattering but a bit too wild), while the second was a bitter, overworked Italian lady in her second year of a part-time PGC who kept on whining for 10 minutes about how hard it is to study and work at the same time. Go figure :)

Anyway, whatever other people think, I believe that doing a PhD in linguistics, like every thing else in life, has its ups and downs, but when it's up, it can be real fun. Plus I won't be doing it in the first place if I didn't enjoy it. So where am I now exactly on the ups-downs scale? Well, given that I am in my first year, I am still leaning towards the up side. Or am I really? You see, one thing I didn't tell you about doing a PhD in linguistics is that you tend to be confused about lots of things, or did I tell you that already? ;-)

Mai