Graduate Student after 3rd Semester

The third semester of my graduate studies is almost at its end. I am going back home in two weeks after one and a half years. I have been out of home since I was nine, studying always in boarding schools. But it was never for such a long stretch. Naturally, I am excited. However, right now it’s not only the excitement creeping in my mind; it’s also the uneasiness of a graduate student in one’s second year. To be honest, I have no idea where my research is heading. In the past one year I have learnt things, understood concepts and become more confident. But I doubt my abilities to conduct research on my own. So far, whatever I have achieved has largely been a favor from my senior in the lab. Unfortunately, he is graduating soon and soon it’s going to be a one-man-show, that one man being yours truly. It has got sort of an uncanny feeling when you know that you got no one for ready support. As far the advisor is concerned, I think other than some lucky graduate students, it’s hardly a factor save for the final stages when you need contacts for a job. From an optimistic perspective, hopefully it will help me grow as an independent researcher. Well, let’s put it in different words. It will be a test for me whether I can be independent and whether I can be a researcher, because so far I have been neither.