finish my doctorate

I am officially ABD, whoopee.

I see ABD status in sight, come on month of March! I love learning, I love my program and my cohort (who have been the same group of 22 people working together for 3 years), but even with all that it is HARD! I work a 7AM to 5.30pm, exercise 6-7 and am so exhausted just living that pushing myself to do the work requires more self-discipline that I have ever had! While I wouldn’t discourage people from this goal, I’d encourage people to really think about why they want this degree and what they are willing to sacrifice to get it. Did you want freedom on the weekends? Do you want to spend time with your children or spouse? Are you able to say ‘no’ to friends who want to go out? Opportunities to volunteer? Helping your friends and family on a regular basis? If you do a doctorate you’ll need to prepare to sacrifice something.

Still tired and looking forward to having the month off in June to not be actively in a class. I am actually enjoying the stat class I have right now (shocking, I know!). Its been slower paced and easier than I had anticipated. July brings my last (sniff, sniff) residency, after that, I’ll never meet with my cohort group again except via internet or at graduation!!!! Month of June will be reserved for moving back to the US after 3 years in Southeast Asia. That’s enough stress for now. PERSEVERANCE is key!

1 year to ABD, and I am exhausted. I am hoping it is just February blues and I’ll get re-energized, but I wake up tired after 10 hours of sleep. Trying to read in the evenings is killing me, as soon as I stop moving I fall asleep in 10 minutes. I feel like all I have done is work and school, even though I have had vacation, I come back to even more work and school. Ugh! I have to work this weekend because I have been too busy at my real job to do any school work for the last 10 days. I should be grateful to have come this far (31 out of 60 hours), its just becoming grueling way too early!!! (I expected to feel this way in dissertation, but we aren’t that far yet!)

I think I will reward myself with a puppy when I finish this goal. I might have time to take care of one by then, and I have wanted another puppy to raise for a while now.

No wonder so many people quit, I am procrastinating on my work right now!