This past May I sat for, took, and passed my Ph.D. candidacy exams. Towards the end of the months of reading, studying, and note-taking I began thinking about about what was on the other side of the exams – there is always another hurdle, another mountain, another river – and in those brief moments I found myself a bit overwhelmed. Knowing that the exams were the more pressing issue I suppressed those fears and pushed through the studying. Well, now I am here, on the other side of the exams, and it is a rather strange place to find myself.
The dissertation process is odd. In the coming weeks I will begin writing my prospectus, and, hopefully, come fall I will be working on a chapter (pending the approval of the prospectus). I think many people find the dissertation daunting and overwhelming for a variety of reasons. I can’t speak to all of those, but in this blog I will be openly discussing the moments of euphoria and the pitfalls that come with the process. This is a blog about one writer’s journey through the dissertation – start to finish.