A feeling of positivity in a world filled with chaos

A grounded, down to earth, helpful, giving PhD . . . who'd a thunk it?

My chair, we'll call her NG, is WONDERFUL! I could not have asked for a better person to chair my dissertation committee. A little history . . . I originally had a committee of people who did not like each other. It was a bad time . . . So, I went to NG and she agree to chair my committee and we developed a new and improved committee. I will not go as far as to say that my committee is free of PhDivas or PhDivos as the case may be, but my chair grounds the whole thing. I heart her. NG knows when to call me on my shizz, as well as, when to complement my shizz. She admits her own weaknesses, and advises me very well. Yes, folks, this is a love fest. She is by no means perfect, none of us are - no matter what we may think of ourselves :) - but, she rules as the chair of my committee. An example - the last two days, I have had a spurt of creative/productive energy. I don't really know where these spurts come from, but I have learned to ride the wave. So, I have spent the last two days updating two chapters of my dissertation, my cv, and a little document called my research agenda. I have sent these docs to NG, and she has been on the ball sending them back to me with "embedded comments". Therefore, rather than floundering in a sea of procratination and despair, I have been productive. With NG's help, I have re-developed my CV, and have completed my research agenda.

For those of you who don't know - because I didn't - a research agenda outline my past, present, and future research interests. Now, if I were completely honest, I would say that my future research interests would be to leave me the "f" alone, and let me research and/or publish at my leisure . . . however, in academia, that is a luxury we are not afforded. So, a potential University employer has asked me to create this document. . . And, with NG's help, it is finished. That being said, I'm not sure if what I've written is exactly what I want to do - more likely, what potential salary and insurance giver wants me to do - but, alas, that is the name of the game.

I've written enough for now, I just felt like on this blog, where we might be more critical than praising, that I would provide some positivity in a world filled with chaos ( I cannot take full credit for the last half of that sentence as it is an adapted quote from the movie Clueless).