This weekend the Mister and I took a trip up to Laramie to visit the University of Wyoming campus. I had my orientation to my doctoral program on Saturday. When I took my first class last fall I was a non-matriculating student because I had not officially been admitted. In fact, I wasn't admitted until late February when I was half-way into my second and third classes. So, by the time orientation came around I thought I had school pretty well figured out.
The first clue that I was suffering a cranial-rectal inversion was in a phone conversation with my advisor about three weeks ago. She is going to be on sabbatical this fall and next spring so we had several semesters of classes to plan out. At the end of our phone conversation she mentioned that I need to have my dissertation committee locked in by the end of this semester and must complete my general exam this fall. Wha...? I convinced myself that I probably had more flexibility than that and decided to "believe" once I went through the orientation.
(Duh-duh-duh...sense of impending doom)
The orientation knocked me on my butt. I'm completing my third class this spring and I think I'm already behind on my dissertation! My general exam MUST be taken this fall, and why don't you have your electronic portfolio set up? Don't know who you could ask to be on your committee? Better make a phone call to your advisor ASAP and get that figured out! Oh, by the way, you'll probably need to take a week's vacation to do your general exam because it's 5-6 fully-researched 8-10 page essays that must be completed within 5 days. Oh, and did we mention that while you are working on this degree you should also be A) learning a foreign language B) publishing and C) teaching. So...I think I need to "adjust my expectations" because I was not prepared for this at all. I still want to (need to) do this degree, it's just now I have a much higher level of anxiety about it!
"So I've got that goin' for me..." (I never reference movies, but that's a good one).
I do not need to adjust my expectations for the peonies. They did their job this weekend and have poked through the surface. I did several turns around the yard yesterday while taking a break from schoolwork and am pleased to report that the flower bed is really starting to take off.
2 comments:
Yikes! Exciting and scary all at the same time - can't wait to talk in person about this - you know how I feel about getting my updates through your blog :)
Reading this post made my blood pressure leap! But, if there is anyone I know who could do this, it's you. You are going to be the Brenda Leigh of your program!
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