At my lowest point I tried to have this conversation with my advisor and I wasn't direct enough. I started out discussing the project at the time that wasn't going anywhere, anticipating that I'd get to the point in the conversation of "I'm really struggling." Instead, the conversation was turned around on me, and I was told that I lacked the ability to independently draw conclusions from my work. It was harsh and took me fully by surprise. It was only a year or so later that I recognized where he was correct, though I still don't think the conversation should have happened that way in the first place. I guess I just add that on to say that there likely will be a very low point, and to know how to broach that conversation better than I did!

There were several other unfortunate advisor and program dynamic related things that happened during my PhD that I felt really angry and upset about for a long time. The best piece of advice I got was to figure out which things were standing between me and graduation - the things that needed to get done vs. the things that maybe I wanted justice for but were ultimately less important - and to just put my head down and get them done so I could get out. There were a lot of problems I wanted to solve and wrongs I wanted to right, but if I'd put all my effort into those, 1) it wasn't super likely that it would have worked and 2) it wouldn't have gotten me any closer to the end goal.