Grad School sometimes...

sucks.

I doubt I need to go into all the gory details. If you are in grad school, then you fully understand. If you are not in grad school, then like Marge says, you did not make terrible life choices and therefore need not worry.

Suffice it to say, I am at the dissertation stage of grad school, which is a blessing and a curse. Whenever I tell this to someone outside of the university, their face lights up, and they say something like, "Oh how wonderful! You're almost done!" And then I choke down all the anecdotal stories, some of which have become legend, about that other grad student in that other section of the department who is still working on his/her dissertation after 4/5/insert scary # here years. Because that really wouldn't be polite.

I am planning to be on the job market by next fall - Fall 2012 - which means that I have Spring and Summer to do research + write at least two chapters.

On the one hand, I feel ok. My prospectus was solid, and I have a good idea of where I'm going from that document to a first chapter. On the other hand, starting a behemoth project like a dissertation makes you realize exactly how much the rest of your academic life up until this point has been micromanaged. There are no end of the quarter deadlines, no final papers you can bang out in a couple of evenings and then forget about, no extensions, at least not if I want to get out of grad school in five years total (my current goal). Basically, it's one humongous goal looming somewhere in the ether that I have to figure out how to chomp into little bits and tackle.

So, not too much about God in this post other than that I am pretty sure I will be relying on God's grace, a lot, to get through this process. Amen.