In the middle of my doctorate I had a mini-crisis of "I'm not smart enough and I'm never going to manage this", got mononucleosis, and decided the cure was the

In the middle of my doctorate I had a mini-crisis of "I'm not smart enough and I'm never going to manage this", got mononucleosis, and decided the cure was the US equivalent (the USA Rail Pass: https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/departure-rail-pass.html https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/departure-rail-pass.html). I spent weeks and weeks traveling around the US. The Amtrak system is much maligned but you get to move at a slow pace and see the country and meet people (some of which you would prefer to have not met). I highly recommend doing it if you want to get a sense of the scale and diversity of the US. During this trip, at the recommendation of a friend, I read (or tried to read) a number of "American classic" books which I would finish and then leave on the train for someone else to read. Catch in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, ... The only book I couldn't finish was, ironically, On The Road which I found utterly tedious.