The last week or so has been up and down. My anxiety level has been pretty high. I think it’s been a combination of the fact that Thanksgiving break really wiped me out, and I had ‘December 5’ looming in front of me. Well, today is December 5th, and that means that I have to trek to school with some cranberry orange bread in hand to defend my generals exam. If you remember, during the first week of November, I took my generals exam (a four day written comprehensive exam). You can read about it here, here, here and here. Honestly, the writing portion of this kind of exam is much more my strong suit than what I have to do today. What I have to do today gives me a cold chill that settles in my spine and makes me think, just for a minute, ‘maybe I don’t need to get a PhD afterall’. My committee is gathering, along with the faculty Graduate Student Representative (who ensures that everything that happens is on the up-and-up), in a room for 2.5 hours to examine me on the responses I wrote and on Geography in general. One of the aims of this exam is to determine whether or not I have the breadth of knowledge in the field needed to teach undergraduate courses. If I pass the exam, I will have achieved candidacy and, once I defend my research proposal, will have the green light to start work on my dissertation. Fingers crossed! I met with my dear, dear advisor on Friday, who said “Just have fun! This will be a blast!”. I’m trying to think of it as fun–as a wonderful opportunity to sit in a room for 2.5 hours and talk with some of the most amazing people I know about the intellectual topics I care about most. And so on that positive note, a review of the last week or so:
November 25th, 2011: A recap of the lovely Thanksgiving dinner we had with Karena and her family.
November 26th, 2011: A little video of a band playing jazz for cows in a field in France.
November 29th, 2011: A recipe for homemade spiced cider. Yum!
December 1st, 2011: Temple Grandin came to the UW and I recorded my thoughts on her work.
December 2nd, 2011: Singing the praises of apple cider vinegar after a number of days of heartburn (come to think of it, I’m sure the stress and anxiety contributes to the heartburn).
I spent the mornings during this last weekend preparing for the exam, but spent the rest of the days relaxing, baking, volunteering at the animal sanctuary, etc. Hope you all had a lovely weekend!
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You will be amazing grace!