A lot has been going on since I last wrote here. Alas, I am a Ph.D. candidate!! Thank God, I was able to finish my written comp and successfully defend it two weeks later. A week after that, all 4 of us left on a trip (quite far away, to a nice exotic place, I might add) since my husband had a conference and we thought it would be a good opportunity to see the place. Overall, the trip was good. I did get terribly sick with food poisoning on the second to last day; the days my husband was in the conference were so-so since at least half of the time I couldn't do too much with the kids, but I did manage to venture out a little bit. Otherwise, it was great to be able to see what we could and enjoy the warm weather/whatever we could get of the beach.
We just got back a few days ago, and honestly, along with the jet lag, I feel like my mind is going in circles. I had a meeting this morning with the head of the department where I serve as an adjunct instructor. I feel a little better after that knowing that I will definitely be teaching 2 if not 3 classes (dependent on enrollment) in the fall-- particularly as all this relates to the financial front. However, the issue of seriously beginning my dissertation proposal, with the goal of finishing it be the early Fall (per my advisor and comp exam committee) is looming overhead. To be honest, I am still so tired from traveling and a mega mountain of laundry and a disorganized, crappy dirty house needs immediate attention, so I am not going to pressure myself too much about it at least for a week or so. However, I do have to start thinking about it very soon. Should I schedule preliminary interviews...what about additional literature to review....oh, and what about those conference papers that are fairly unrelated to my proposal that I actually have to get done by the end of July if not sooner...yeah...I really need to touch base with a few profs first too...oh, and what about the fact that I have no source of income this summer since I don't have summer funding, and the department couldn't fund my proposal for summer funding even though they wanted to because it is related to my potential dissertation (higher up bureaucracy, ugh), and if I knew that ahead of time I would have written the proposal in relation to my conference papers, but I was advised to write it for my preliminary dissertation research.....and the run on train of thought chugs on. All in all, I really feel like this is a transition phase. Imminent dissertation research can be exciting, but is scary at the same time. There are so many other aspects of it that feed in to these emotions and related states of mind/being. I could go on, but now I think I need to eat lunch and tackle this pile of laundry, even though I feel in a weird state of academic and professional limbo.
We just got back a few days ago, and honestly, along with the jet lag, I feel like my mind is going in circles. I had a meeting this morning with the head of the department where I serve as an adjunct instructor. I feel a little better after that knowing that I will definitely be teaching 2 if not 3 classes (dependent on enrollment) in the fall-- particularly as all this relates to the financial front. However, the issue of seriously beginning my dissertation proposal, with the goal of finishing it be the early Fall (per my advisor and comp exam committee) is looming overhead. To be honest, I am still so tired from traveling and a mega mountain of laundry and a disorganized, crappy dirty house needs immediate attention, so I am not going to pressure myself too much about it at least for a week or so. However, I do have to start thinking about it very soon. Should I schedule preliminary interviews...what about additional literature to review....oh, and what about those conference papers that are fairly unrelated to my proposal that I actually have to get done by the end of July if not sooner...yeah...I really need to touch base with a few profs first too...oh, and what about the fact that I have no source of income this summer since I don't have summer funding, and the department couldn't fund my proposal for summer funding even though they wanted to because it is related to my potential dissertation (higher up bureaucracy, ugh), and if I knew that ahead of time I would have written the proposal in relation to my conference papers, but I was advised to write it for my preliminary dissertation research.....and the run on train of thought chugs on. All in all, I really feel like this is a transition phase. Imminent dissertation research can be exciting, but is scary at the same time. There are so many other aspects of it that feed in to these emotions and related states of mind/being. I could go on, but now I think I need to eat lunch and tackle this pile of laundry, even though I feel in a weird state of academic and professional limbo.
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