So I keep a low profile on here for the most part, but I have had some wonderful interactions. So in that spirit I thought I would share a little about me.
I am working on my dissertation for my PhD in Literature. This has been true about me for about 2 years, but for the first time in all of that time I have a full draft (322 bloated-ass pages) and I am in the final moments of this part of my career. The marketplace is shit right now, but I don't care....this is a benchmark for me and when I am done, I will be able to assess my life with a real sense of the future for the first time since 2007, which is crazy scary and exciting for me.
So today I needed to make a big boy step.....I need to corral my readers for my dissertation, which involves 3 professors from my department, 2 of which I have not spoken to in about a year. And then I need to find a fourth reader, who must be outside my department....which is also scary since I haven't been on campus for the last three semesters. Eeeeeh.
So I was running today, and it's about 93 or degrees and for whatever reason my brain just started yelling at me and making me confront the fact that I need to do this. So I got home and blame it on my being woozy and heat-stroken, but I did it. I wrote to my two committee members, my adviser, my current teaching dept chair, and 5 more or less complete strangers. All those emails trying to coordinate my life. I am glad it didn't take me being drunk to get this done so that I didn't say things like "your work is really fascinating and also your bio pic makes you look hot"
Anyway, this is big for me, both the part in which I did what I had to do, but also that as an introvert who has issues internalizing achievement, well, big.
I am working on my dissertation for my PhD in Literature. This has been true about me for about 2 years, but for the first time in all of that time I have a full draft (322 bloated-ass pages) and I am in the final moments of this part of my career. The marketplace is shit right now, but I don't care....this is a benchmark for me and when I am done, I will be able to assess my life with a real sense of the future for the first time since 2007, which is crazy scary and exciting for me.
So today I needed to make a big boy step.....I need to corral my readers for my dissertation, which involves 3 professors from my department, 2 of which I have not spoken to in about a year. And then I need to find a fourth reader, who must be outside my department....which is also scary since I haven't been on campus for the last three semesters. Eeeeeh.
So I was running today, and it's about 93 or degrees and for whatever reason my brain just started yelling at me and making me confront the fact that I need to do this. So I got home and blame it on my being woozy and heat-stroken, but I did it. I wrote to my two committee members, my adviser, my current teaching dept chair, and 5 more or less complete strangers. All those emails trying to coordinate my life. I am glad it didn't take me being drunk to get this done so that I didn't say things like "your work is really fascinating and also your bio pic makes you look hot"
Anyway, this is big for me, both the part in which I did what I had to do, but also that as an introvert who has issues internalizing achievement, well, big.
What happens after you're finally done?
Umm...next step is to defend it, take my degree, go on a week bender of mostly cookies, and then start looking for meaningful work. Or keep taking adjunct positions and trying to find less meaningful work in a coffeeshop or something.
I also want to try to break it up into sections and get them published separate along with some new material I will be working on. Ideally, 2013-14 will be a better school year for looking for work once I am done.