On piecing it all together

My big accomplishment of the weekend was piecing all 8 chapters of Geraldine together. Until now, each chapter had a separate file. Actually, each chapter has a separate folder on my computer and there are multiple files for each different version, data, etc. for each chapter. Creating one document in which all chapters appear in linear order should be easy, as it mostly includes copying the entire chapter and then pasting it to a new document. That part was easy, but checking the document for consistency, errors, citations, labels and so one is very time consuming.

For anyone who's interested in what exactly I had to do to to create a complete draft, I explain it in the next blog entry. For those who are just interested in reading about how I feel, reading this paragraph will suffice. While creating a single document for everything in the dissertation, a rush of positive encouragement came through me. For the first time, Geraldine started to look like a dissertation. I started to realize just how much work I've accomplished in the last 15 months. I can't believe how much data I've collected, sorted through and analyzed, nor how much I've learned through this process. In addition to becoming a true expert in my research topic, I've learned a lot about myself. My views of graduate education, professors, academia, and other graduate students have changed. Despite every time I've felt guilty for not working on Geraldine or felt overwhelmed with data and demands, having a complete draft helps me see that my work actually created something and it isn't a load of crap. The process demanded many sleepless nights, nightmares, frustrations, tears, angry words, snack breaks, isolation, and other sacrifices (including the innocent destruction of pencils) and finally, it has resulted in a substantial piece of research that contributes to linguistics, typology, lexical typology, and scientific knowledge in general. And I created it. It is mine. After May 19th, people will have to reference my work and each time they do, they will recognize my efforts, expertise, and short comings and I might even receive a royalty check of $18 every two years! The best part? I did all of this before Holy Week started and might be able to think about something else for a few days before the next major round of revisions starts. :0)