The PhD journey can be arduous, especially for those who follow a less traditional path. For marginalised subjects, such as mature aged women pursuing topics of social and political importance in higher degree research, the journey can carry additional challenges. The non-linear path can be akin to entering Alice’s rabbit hole; disorienting, unnerving, and full of unanticipated challenges and joys. Continuation in and completion of the PhD rely on diverse forms of capital—economic, psychological, social—but also entail a personal weighting exercise; is the value worth the effort? In this chapter I explore my own motivations for enrolling and continuing in the degree, the challenges that placed pressure on my journey, and the variables that upon ‘weighting’ carried me through to completion. Drawing on feminist theorisations of Foucault, I speak especially to the role of my PhD in shaping a changed social justice subjectivity for me, and how this became the benefit and value of the process, over and above the formal degree.