Yesterday afternoon I successfully defended my dissertation prospectus and passed my hearing. If you’re not in academia this may not mean much, but for those of you who have some experience with advanced degrees, it’s kind of major. After nearly 4 years of work, which included 2 years of course work, 1 year of comprehensive exam prep and completion, and nearly a year of preliminary research for my dissertation project and crafting the prospectus, I am now officially All But Dissertation (ABD).
Officially a doctoral candidate. [pause]
Doctoral candidate? Me? Yep. [pause]
What does that mean? [pause]
It means the hardest part is yet to be done. It also means the most meaningful and personal work is about to get started. In other words, I have my roadmap, now I have to start the trip. While I’ll spend the next year or so in close discussions with my chair, I won’t actually have another formal proceeding until I defend my dissertation. This is hard for me to get my head around. Now, I “just” research, write, revise, and repeat as necessary until I have a completed dissertation.
Although we live about 3000 miles from most of our family, my husband, son, and I were lucky enough to spend the evening celebrating with my parents who are visiting us for a few weeks! To be honest last night was one of the best nights in my life, and for a few very simple reasons. First, I felt the pride my husband and parents have in me, it was electric. They’ve all remained incredibly supportive through this whole process and saw potential in me, even when I didn’t. Second, we had a nice dinner out, took pictures of my son and the Easter bunny, and then stopped by the Disney Store. Typically my husband and I don’t buy many toys for our son—he has plenty that friends and family have given him—and we’re not really much for shopping, but once in awhile I can’t help myself! And truly one of the highlights of yesterday was watching him light up over everything Mickey. Simple pleasure.
It’s important to celebrate accomplishments large and small because the in-between can be a series of disappointments, failures, and frustrations, sprinkled with breakthroughs and successes. To me, ABD means I’ve reached a place I can be proud of, a place that took a lot of work to get to, but of course there is much more to be done. So I celebrate and then get back to work.
Sometimes, the distance between my academic self and family self feels vast. Other times—and specifically with my dissertation project—the distance is much smaller.
If you’re interested in a bit about my dissertation project, you can read my “Purpose and Rationale” section from my prospectus here.