Dr. With Revisions

One of my friends teasingly called me Dr. With Revisions the other day when I explained the behind closed door department. He was taking notes since it is his first year of grad school and giving me a "rough" time since I'm almost done and won't be around for teasing much in the future.

Despite the public and behind closed door defense, I still have quite a bit of work left on my dissertation. My committee requested that I rewrite my conclusions to better highlight the value of my research. And I have to basically rewrite my 3rd chapter on cultural adaptations to the savanna-forest environment in the southern Mozambique region.

My major adviser sent me his full comments last night and I am meeting with another committee member in about an hour. The chapter isn't completely unsalvageable but it will be ugly. I suspect further data analysis too. I have less than a month as my final version of the whole shebang is due to the UGA Graduate School on 7 December.

I have a ton of writing and editing to accomplish this week. Rewriting chapter 3 and getting a mock-up final copy to the grad school for the initial format check. It has to look pretty much done for the format check or you DO NOT GRADUATE. Seriously, at this point my graduation could be hampered by people with rulers checking my margins. You would think it would be easy with a word processing program, but then there are 2 set of required page numbering systems (i-iii in the front matter, 1-200 in the back), smashing together multiple pdfs, etc. One last bullshit hoop.

As I was writing my dissertation, I used to fantasize that the dissertation fairy would wave her magic wand and the entire draft would appear on my flash drive. I wish there was a writing fairy - I guess that's me. My wand sucks - keyboards just aren't as flashy as a ncanhu wand with a lightning bird feather inside.

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?