It has been a while since I posted (a day shy of a month to be exact), and I am doing quite well! During that time I have walked around thinking about all the things I could and should post, and what I will post about now that I am officially no longer a miserable graduate student.
That's right, it's Dr. Jenski to you now! I moved closer to CF, then flew back for a long weekend for my defense, followed by printing my dissertation and dropping it off for binding. My PhD advisor now requires a receipt that she is getting two bound copies before she will submit the paperwork to the graduate school stating I have fulfilled my degree requirements. BUT, that was all finished as of last Friday! In the meantime, I'm sitting at my desk in my post-doc lab drafting this mediocre post (to be posted from home, I'm trying to set some boundaries), looking out the window (that's right, a big window next to my desk), with a temporary appointment (read: I'm on payroll), before the rest of my training grant paperwork goes through for my post-doc fellowship.
A while back my friend with whom I frequently walked and I talked about writing a book. She was in her first year as a post-doc; I was getting the ball rolling to finish. We had a "business dinner" and outlined ideas about which to write and a few ways to organize the book. It was looking to be a whole bunch of unsolicited advice for grad students. Problem is, then she got another appointment and started running her own lab and my ball started rolling faster and we never actually started writing. I got to stay with her a couple nights when I was back for my defense, and the book came up in conversation. She thinks she's too far removed from grad school now to do it. I think I totally feel like she did at the time when we started talking about it though. I have been pretty reflective about graduate school since I got in the car to drive 12 hours with my cat to move. The feelings of misery disappearred pretty quickly (thankfully), but it has made me think about what to use from my graduate experience and how to start developing my work habits and mentoring style. Be forwarned, in upcoming posts, you may hear about that. Now that I am basically settled in here physically, I also need to get my life going. I haven't exercised in a month, and I need to find activities outside of lab to meet people and socialize. Not that CF and his friends aren't great, but I'm a little too independent to rely on that. I've thought about trying out some churches and maybe a sewing class, but wonder if these are recipes for meeting older motherly types? We'll see - stay tuned.
4 comments:
Congrats again on a major accomplishment, Dr. Jenski!
I am convinced that there will never be anything in your life that is as difficult as getting this Ph.D. Mainly because it goes on for so many freakin' years. And because of the endless disappointments of experiments with crappy results that then make you feel like you are about 1 cm tall.
I know that this trivializes things like childbirth, the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job, but I stand by my opinion. I imagine that even with the difficulties you had with your thyroid, for example, it was never as hard as grad school. Some sort of major change in your health would be the only thing that I can imagine is comparable.
Doesn't that make you want to tell undergrads to go into grad school?!
I hope that you can write a book to benefit other students. If I can find it, I'll send you the title/authors of an advice book that is more on the academic side (written by advisors). It might give you ideas for topics and/or give you an idea of what you do NOT want to write.
Enough negativity though, I'm so glad for you! And you finished in time to enjoy Christmas! Fantastic!
Dr. Jenski, you need to update your "about me" blurb!!!!
Danielle, THANKS! Grad school is difficult - one of my biggest problems was realizing I really had no say in when I could finish and not being a fan of my advisor who did. It's over now though, WOOHOO! :-)
Caro, done. Thanks for the reminder!
Well done Dr. Jenski! What an amazing achievement. My hat is off to you!! :-)
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