M.I.A.

I know that it's been a loooong time since I last posted. I apologize. I would like to list my many excuses. First, holy god is there a lot of work, reading and time to this PhD stuff! Secondly, I had to travel home to Chicago briefly and also had a lovely visit here from close friends. Finally, I recently caught something that I am calling "flu-plague," because that is exactly how it feels. As I currently have no voice, but have recovered from the recurrent fever that was symptomatic of my "flu-plague," it seemed like a good time to write.

I have some new advice for anybody who reads this blog for doctoral info. or tips. First, I've now learned that this is not a sprint, it is a marathon. I am beginning to understand the real definition of persistence. You might think that you are a persistent person (I did), you might think that you know what the word means (Oh, just wait until they teach you about concept analysis), you might have completed some previous tasks that required persistence (they were good preparation), but this process requires a lot more persistence than you ever imagined.

Be aware that your endurance will build, but also actively try to build it by keeping up with the readings and thinking ahead. Nothing in the program is ever done; papers, projects, classes are only the blocks that you will use to write the next paper, do the next project or take the next class. There is no filler. It is all important. And that is overwhelming. So let go of the idea that you are going to finish something and move on to other things.  I have files, on top of files, on top of stacks of articles that I know will be useful....for something later.

There has been very little coasting so far. The work is concussive. I have papers due in three weeks that are worth half of my grade for a class. I still have to write them even though I just got back all of my mid-quarter papers with grades that seem less than reflective of the extreme effort that went into them. Which leads me to another tip. Get a thick skin BEFORE you start a PhD program. The gloves are off. There isn't time for anyone to write "nice effort." It isn't that the grading is harsh, or unfair, it isn't. It's just that we are going to be the colleagues of the professors that are grading these papers. And they are not planning on raising any fools. They're using each paper we write as a place to give constructive criticism. It has all been constructive, it has almost all been criticism also. I have learned to live for the "nicely done" comment or the "interesting thought" scribbled in a margin. They are manna to me.

These papers are also, for the first time in my educational career, all applicable. Because the assignments are tailored so that each student can write them on the phenomenon of interest relevant to that student, they are all a chance to increase knowledge. What I have found to be very, very helpful is that I had some articles and basic knowledge on my topic before entering the program. This leads me to my last tip for this post. Before entering a PhD program, it is important to have accumulated and read at least some articles in the area that you would like to research. For one of the applications to schools, I had to write a scholarly paper. The articles that I found for that paper have served as references, places to look for other references, and idea-generators for all of the papers I've written this quarter. The amount of time it would have taken to find them during the quarter might have been crippling.

So that's it. I'm still loving it, but the honeymoon is over. I'm off to take NyQuil and go to bed. I have to get up and start working early. :)