Ph.D. Stuff: They signed the proposal!

Time to get back to work.
After a brief hiatus from both Blogging and Flickring, I am looking forward to see what the new year brings. Want to know why I took off?


Well, I took off because I had a Ph. D. proposal to complete and submit and get approved.  To be honest, I am not sure I completed it, nor how it got approved, but it was submitted. Certainly the best part of this whole process is that my graduate committee signed it!


I had not been able to talk much about the experience because it was so significant for me that it rendered me numb, dumbstruck, spinning into a place I had not experienced before, and certainly a place I never ever thought I would reach. You see, I was not raised to be a Ph.D. So dim were my prospects in the town where I grew up that at one point I think my family would have been glad I'd find a suitable husband and consider that my life's accomplishment. Seriously, growing up, I didn't even know what having a doctorate meant much less that one day I would be at the stage in the game where one can be said to be ABD (all but dissertation).


But somehow I convinced the committee to sign. And they did on December 8th of 2011. That is all I know and that now I'm one step closer to a Ph.D. than I, or anyone else in my family, have ever been before.


Sure, I'm still a little dizzy from the experience, which has left me physically tired, but I am energized and hopeful that in a year's time I'll be walking the stage with a diploma in hand.