The unexpected hard things about finishing a PhD

Trust me, I was anticipating that finishing my PhD was going to be hard. I never expected that it was going to be margaritas on a sailing-boat. But, so many unexpected hard aspects have popped up in the last (maybe) six months before PhD submission.

• Job hunting stress- I always knew that something needs to come after a PhD but I think I deliberately ignored that throughout the PhD experience. Now, what comes after a PhD actually needs to be considered. Searching for, applying for, and being rejected from jobs is stressful.
• Busy, busy, busy- I thought that I would be less busy (in terms of multitasking) in the last six months of my PhD. I figured I would be focused on thesis writing and nothing else. But for many reasons (needing money, being more experienced, opportunities arising) I am juggling more work than ever before.
• Pimples- There are pimples all over my face. I am not a super vain person, but wowee, these little red life ruiners are causing additional stress- which causes additional pimples- and around and around I go.
• So extremely exhausted- Finishing up a PhD is so exhausting, to the point that I am not sure if you can prepare for it. I am sure that one day if/when I have a newborn baby, I will look back on this period of my life and laugh at the fact I thought I was exhausted. But regardless, it is exhausting and needing extra sleep is not helpful when you also need to write a thesis
• Drafting- The drafting aspect of finishing a PhD is much harder than I anticipated. Producing a completed thesis is not just up to you but it is dependent on many people drafting many pieces of work many times. This is time consuming and stressful AF.