Truly, I shouldn't be writing this post right now-- I should be compiling my notes in preparation for my 2nd (and LAST) comprehensive exam which begins on April 1st (oh how I wish we only had to do ONE comp exam-- I would have achieved candidacy well over a year ago). However, I guess I just wanted to reflect on this, partially as self-therapy since I am a ball of nerves this week.
I went to a regional conference this weekend which was close to my campus, about a 1.5 hr drive from where I live. Long story short, due to something I wanted to take my son to on Sat. morning and just the fact that we left a lot later than planned, I only made it to one Sat. afternoon session and my early Sunday morning session (in which I did my own presentation). Nevertheless, this conference was beneficial as I received some good feedback on my presentation; I ran into two professors from my school; I felt great for having some adult interaction (no offense to my husband, but I am sure some of you moms out there who work from home can relate); and, I was able to commiserate with a few students about our common plight in the seemingly never ending process that characterizes PhD acquisition land. One student was from my program; I hadn't seen her in a long time and she also has 2 children. I told her about the stress over my upcoming comp exam, and how (due to that and several other reasons) I often talked about quitting to my husband. She concurred having similar sentiments but now having come this far, she can't quit and has just been moving ahead in working on her dissertation proposal. I also spoke with another grad student who presented in my session; we spent about a half an hour talking after the session about issues related to funding, the time it takes to do research for the dissertation, and how we need to get out of our minds that the dissertation does not have to be the best and most awesome project we've ever done. Rather, we just need to finish. The latter is an issue I have grappled with for numerous reasons (especially reasons related to the logistics of conducting qualitative research with two small children-- which has led me to modify the direction I am thinking of going with my diss.project). However, the bottom line is that I felt better having been able to commiserate with fellow grad students. That is something I miss, since I am not on campus too much anymore. It is one thing to post a facebook status and to receive comments from fellow grad students, but it is another to vent with other students face-to-face and to have a more free flowing conversation with other people who can relate to you situation in one way or another and who can provide some sort of encouragement. I've also been grateful for some online communities and other blogs that have filled these gaps of in-person interaction with my cohort-mates and other students in my program.
Honestly, I am still feeling tense about this comp exam. Even though I have a vague idea of the potential questions, I still don't know what my exam committee is going to ask, hence I go between wanting to frantically compile detailed notes for various references to being unsure if this is a waste of my time because they might not ask anything related to a particular subarea. Part of me wants to e-mail a bunch of other students but what on earth would I say? It doesn't make sense. I might be posting one of those Facebook statuses soon.
I went to a regional conference this weekend which was close to my campus, about a 1.5 hr drive from where I live. Long story short, due to something I wanted to take my son to on Sat. morning and just the fact that we left a lot later than planned, I only made it to one Sat. afternoon session and my early Sunday morning session (in which I did my own presentation). Nevertheless, this conference was beneficial as I received some good feedback on my presentation; I ran into two professors from my school; I felt great for having some adult interaction (no offense to my husband, but I am sure some of you moms out there who work from home can relate); and, I was able to commiserate with a few students about our common plight in the seemingly never ending process that characterizes PhD acquisition land. One student was from my program; I hadn't seen her in a long time and she also has 2 children. I told her about the stress over my upcoming comp exam, and how (due to that and several other reasons) I often talked about quitting to my husband. She concurred having similar sentiments but now having come this far, she can't quit and has just been moving ahead in working on her dissertation proposal. I also spoke with another grad student who presented in my session; we spent about a half an hour talking after the session about issues related to funding, the time it takes to do research for the dissertation, and how we need to get out of our minds that the dissertation does not have to be the best and most awesome project we've ever done. Rather, we just need to finish. The latter is an issue I have grappled with for numerous reasons (especially reasons related to the logistics of conducting qualitative research with two small children-- which has led me to modify the direction I am thinking of going with my diss.project). However, the bottom line is that I felt better having been able to commiserate with fellow grad students. That is something I miss, since I am not on campus too much anymore. It is one thing to post a facebook status and to receive comments from fellow grad students, but it is another to vent with other students face-to-face and to have a more free flowing conversation with other people who can relate to you situation in one way or another and who can provide some sort of encouragement. I've also been grateful for some online communities and other blogs that have filled these gaps of in-person interaction with my cohort-mates and other students in my program.
Honestly, I am still feeling tense about this comp exam. Even though I have a vague idea of the potential questions, I still don't know what my exam committee is going to ask, hence I go between wanting to frantically compile detailed notes for various references to being unsure if this is a waste of my time because they might not ask anything related to a particular subarea. Part of me wants to e-mail a bunch of other students but what on earth would I say? It doesn't make sense. I might be posting one of those Facebook statuses soon.
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