On the light at the end of the tunnel

Ugh, 23 pages later and I finally have the majority of the data needed for my chapter on Indo-European historical developments completed. I have two more sections to write and a lot of editing, but the end is in sight and I am starting to feel relieved. I should be able to complete the rest of the chapter tomorrow and have a clean, clear chapter to send to Indy by Monday. Phew! To celebrate, I think I'm going to write my introduction chapter and get it out of the way.

Depending on how things go this weekend, I should have 5 of 8 chapter completed as of Monday. Who knew the best Valentine's Day gift this year would be completing more than half of the dissertation?

January was a rough month for me and February hasn't been that much better. It's already the end of the 3rd week of the semester and I am about a month behind where I wanted to be. A lot has been happening in my personal life over the last month and it has placed working on my dissertation at the bottom of my to-do list. I know that this is bad for my progress toward becoming Dr. Kelsie, but my mental and physical health during the last month have prevented me from sitting at the computer for hours on end. Once I got over the overwhelming urge to hide in bed for the whole day, I finally started to talk to my committee members about my progress (or lack there of). So far, everyone has been very supportive and helpful. One of my committee members, who studied under a famous guy named Krashen, told me that since "binge writing" (Krashen's term) is no longer working for me, try to add a few lines each day. It won't produce the same satisfaction of accomplishing tons of work, but it will complete my dissertation. I'm finding that if I start working first thing in the morning, I can manage to work for about 2 hours before my body decides it is time to stop for the day.

Surprisingly, Indy's support has been the best. He has been incredibly friendly and encouraging and my last conversations with him relieved a lot of my anxiety. The goal is still to graduate this semester, but if that doesn't happen, we'll work it out.

I applied for graduation last week and still hope that I'll have a complete rough draft by the end of spring break. If I finish my historical chapter and intro this weekend, I'll have 6 weeks to write 3 more chapters (including the conclusion, which should only take a day to write). Keep your fingers crossed that I can do it!