I don't really want a degree. I just want to get married, and have weekends and evenings off, and chill out and play board games, and have nice conversations with friends, and have time to exercise and eat good food, and partake in hobbies, and read books and play computer games and watch movies and write a novel or two. Stuff I used to do as a kid, that I can't do as a grad student.
I like my research, and I like my advisor, but I feel like I work a lot harder than my friends in industry, and I'll be putting my life on hold for at least the next two years, while I'm finishing classes and qualifying exams. Frankly I don't feel like I can survive the next year, and just the thought of staying here for the next few months makes me depressed.
The problem is if I wasn't a PhD student, I'd just be another fat ugly loser with no social status, and nobody would love me or think I was valuable. I wouldn't be taken as seriously when it came time to apply for jobs, and people would think I was stupid or at least not any better than someone with a bachelor's degree. At least now I can apply for internships and get interviews. And because I am a PhD student at a top school, people assume I'm smart, which also helps me find dates, even though I'm obese, wear glasses, and dress poorly. It puts me in a different "league" and if I quit I'd have to go back to dating losers who only want me because they can't find any other girlfriends.
Also if I quit my PhD, I would never be able to come back, and what if my new job ended up sucking, or I couldn't even get a job? I do like my work, and I'm glad I get to do such interesting stuff, I just wish there was less of it.