![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaI had no idea they publicized it.
I made overheads today for my defense. I had been planning to use Powerpoint, but John told me that (a) my presentation can only be fifteen minutes long at a maximum, and (b) he does not approve of students trying to be "flashy" with AV materials at their dissertation defenses. So I have a nice series of eight transparencies, very much all about substance over style.
I'm starting to get nervous.
I was thinking today... for years, my dissertation was my private bete noire, my solitary battle. I was ashamed of my lack of progress, so I resisted talking about it to anyone. It was very lonely. But in the last six weeks or so, as I've been pushing towards the finish line, more and more I've started to think of my dissertation as a rite of passage. I'm very conscious of my friends who have gone before me. When people say, "oh yeah, I felt like that too, just before the end," it's come to mean more to me than just sympathy - it reminds me that I'm traveling a path that generations of academics in all fields have traveled. There's something encouraging about it. I guess it's... context, for how hard all of this has been. I don't know. I've started and then deleted a bunch of attempts at explaining it here.
It's just... thanks, guys.
I made overheads today for my defense. I had been planning to use Powerpoint, but John told me that (a) my presentation can only be fifteen minutes long at a maximum, and (b) he does not approve of students trying to be "flashy" with AV materials at their dissertation defenses. So I have a nice series of eight transparencies, very much all about substance over style.
I'm starting to get nervous.
I was thinking today... for years, my dissertation was my private bete noire, my solitary battle. I was ashamed of my lack of progress, so I resisted talking about it to anyone. It was very lonely. But in the last six weeks or so, as I've been pushing towards the finish line, more and more I've started to think of my dissertation as a rite of passage. I'm very conscious of my friends who have gone before me. When people say, "oh yeah, I felt like that too, just before the end," it's come to mean more to me than just sympathy - it reminds me that I'm traveling a path that generations of academics in all fields have traveled. There's something encouraging about it. I guess it's... context, for how hard all of this has been. I don't know. I've started and then deleted a bunch of attempts at explaining it here.
It's just... thanks, guys.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-29 02:42 am (UTC)I havent kept up much with LJ but as I embark on graduate school decisions, I happen to notice your link to not only disability but also dissertation.. two relevent things in my life. I recently attended a friends dis. defense and a thesis one as well... it was.... stressful... just watching the final crime scene..
I am doing data analysis .. well trying too on my own study I did as a undergrad and will hopefully be something I pursue latter...
Anyways, I have to say that although I dont really know you, it makes me happy.... strange as that sounds that you are... a)a psychologist and b_ you have a disability because I so rarely see that. Im a member of the APA and they have this mentorship program .. that hasn't panned out!
So I enjoyed reading some of your past posts and think its great. I LOVE behavioral medicine. It's fascinating. I volunteer at the UCSD cancer center and my advisor is part of the SDSU/UCSD Joint doctoral program in clin. psych. Its waaaaaaaaaaay to research oriented for me but I still love the work they do.
Anyways.. random admiration...
Issadora