Dissertating

Every year my mom frantically cleans the house before 1 January so that she can start fresh in the new year. Today I cleaned up my lab space - reordered my books, sorted through files, and made a big to do list for the coming year. It looks like I will be in graduate school one more year to complete the writing process. And like my mom, I want to start fresh in 2009.

It isn't like I haven't been working, but getting back into the swing of things after leaving the field has been difficult. I still have days when life in the U.S. is surreal - shopping at the grocery store with all that choice is mind-boggling knowing how my friends back in Madjadjane and Gala fare. There is the personal stuff like my divorce and adjusting to social life as a single person. And lastly, there is the writing. Sitting in front of a computer screen day after day after day after spending 16 months in the field. I did sit in front of a computer screen sometimes in Mozambique, but the experience was interspersed with interviews, plant data collection, exploring and having fun with new friends.

Nothing in graduate school prepares one for dissertating. Procrastination is my biggest enemy. It is very easy to look for just one more article to support an argument, check my email, read the online news, or go here and find a more interesting real time argument in cyberspace.

A good friend of mine suggested that I keep up with the blogging and add to the dissertating discussion. It would also let him know that the zombies haven't eaten my brains for breakfast. And I could at least say I was sort of working on my dissertation, right?