It's been nearly a month since my last blog post. I keep meaning to write part 2 of "On becoming a linguist," I just haven't gotten around to doing it lately. This isn't much different than anything else happening in dissertation land. I keep meaning to do something, and then I get distracted. I've learned that there are always distractions when working on a project, but I allow some to take me away from my work more than others.
By far, the biggest distraction this semester has been finding out that Geraldine is no longer an only child. By some miracle, my reproductive system decided to overlook its flaws and decided that being renamed "Dr. Kelsie" in May isn't enough, someone should call me "mom" in September as well. Between nausea, extreme hunger, napping, grouchiness and the daily panic of realizing that I am now completely responsible for another person, I haven't felt like writing the remaining chapters of my dissertation. Furthermore, really lame video games have become way more entertaining than analyzing etymologies, re-reading my drafts for the eleventybillionth time or hunting down various members of my dissertation committee. At one point I was convinced that I wouldn't graduate this semester, but after receiving a surprisingly uplifting pep talk from Indi, I kept working when I could and wrote two more chapters. I removed the lame video games from my life, and I started becoming more productive. After I completed chapter 6, I realized I only had a little bit more work to do, and yes, it's looking like I'll submit the final copy to my committee in April and defend my dissertation on April 26th at 10 am. Mark your calendars, I expect you to be there. No one on my committee would fail a pregnant lady with a room full of fans.
My discussion chapter is going smoothly. I read a few other dissertations to get a general idea of what must be included, wrote a detailed outline and started composing what will be one of the most important chapters of my dissertation (the other most important ones being the parts in which I explicitly stated what I was doing and what I was not doing with this study.) The discussion chapter's main reason for existing is to tell the reader what matters, why, and what it means. So far, so good.
I also received comments back from two committee members on a big chunk of Geraldine. It helped to see 100 or so pages of my work with comments sitting in my department mailbox. It also helped to know that I'd written another chapter since the 100 pages were printed, and the finished product will include about 200 other pages (my indices are HUGE). The comments are helpful and will not be very time consuming to incorporate. Reading through them resulted in another boost of encouragement that I am in the home stretch, I will defend this semester, and I will officially become Dr. Kelsie on May 19th at about 9:30am (I don't expect you to be there though, because graduations are super dull... only my awesome wizard costume will be exciting).
I have exactly 8 days to finish the entire draft of each chapter and send it to Indi. If I continue to feel normal for the next few days, this shouldn't be a problem. The whole dissertation: front matter, appendices, and all, should be ready for review by the end of March. Phew!
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