Update. Now with promises!
My first semester at grad school ended a couple of weeks ago. I was a ball of emotions. Initially I was a ball of emotions. I felt like I was back in high school. Awkward. Out of place. And then I tried to participate and I felt inadequate. People were using terms/words/phrases I didn't understand. I started feeling like an impostor. That perhaps a mistake had been made when they let me into the program. I was operating on fear.
And then I received feedback on my first papers. Big sigh of relief. I realized that I would be okay. I made it through. And now I feel confident about the fact that I will complete my program. I'm well known for starting stuff and not finishing or following through.
This is also the first time I've written a 20 page paper over a week period. In the past I've done it over a day or two - the results were okayish. I had this fear that if I walked away from the writing that I would forget what I wanted to say that the paper would be disjointed and messy. SO NOT THE CASE. I did it. I got an A on the paper. I also got a a page of feedback. However, here's the comment that stands out to me:
"One of the real strengths that I saw in this paper was an attempt to synthesize the various articles, and think about how, together, they inform your understanding of your topic. This will be important if you do decide to go on to the doctoral level of study, because you will be expected to build a theoretical framework, which involves putting together key concepts to guide your research. So, good work with this so far!"
Yeah. I should mention that I went for lunch with this professor a couple of weeks ago. 3 minutes into our meet, she's like, so why are you in this program. I told her. She's like... we need to talk. Seriously. And so we did.
I AM IN THE WRONG PROGRAM. But. She's also like "You totally have a PhD in you". So, I'm in the midst of transferring programs. I've not wasted any time or money. But I will now be writing a thesis. And for some odd reason, I'm beyond excited about this. I'm heading to Calgary in October to find a suitable supervisor, however, this prof has already offered to supervise me. I just might take her up on her offer. We shall see.
My final grades arrived a week ago. I received an A in both classes. I'm taking two courses this fall and one in the winter semester and then I'm done with course work FOREVER. omgosh. What am I going to do with myself?
Oh right. I'm going to write a thesis. And maybe finally play WOW again. It's been 8 months. Maybe 10 months. I lost track.
And then I received feedback on my first papers. Big sigh of relief. I realized that I would be okay. I made it through. And now I feel confident about the fact that I will complete my program. I'm well known for starting stuff and not finishing or following through.
This is also the first time I've written a 20 page paper over a week period. In the past I've done it over a day or two - the results were okayish. I had this fear that if I walked away from the writing that I would forget what I wanted to say that the paper would be disjointed and messy. SO NOT THE CASE. I did it. I got an A on the paper. I also got a a page of feedback. However, here's the comment that stands out to me:
"One of the real strengths that I saw in this paper was an attempt to synthesize the various articles, and think about how, together, they inform your understanding of your topic. This will be important if you do decide to go on to the doctoral level of study, because you will be expected to build a theoretical framework, which involves putting together key concepts to guide your research. So, good work with this so far!"
Yeah. I should mention that I went for lunch with this professor a couple of weeks ago. 3 minutes into our meet, she's like, so why are you in this program. I told her. She's like... we need to talk. Seriously. And so we did.
I AM IN THE WRONG PROGRAM. But. She's also like "You totally have a PhD in you". So, I'm in the midst of transferring programs. I've not wasted any time or money. But I will now be writing a thesis. And for some odd reason, I'm beyond excited about this. I'm heading to Calgary in October to find a suitable supervisor, however, this prof has already offered to supervise me. I just might take her up on her offer. We shall see.
My final grades arrived a week ago. I received an A in both classes. I'm taking two courses this fall and one in the winter semester and then I'm done with course work FOREVER. omgosh. What am I going to do with myself?
Oh right. I'm going to write a thesis. And maybe finally play WOW again. It's been 8 months. Maybe 10 months. I lost track.