Summer / Milestone
Summer is here. It’s a particularly difficult time for me. Here’s why. You see, the sun calls my name. Well, not just my name; my name and my bike’s name (btw, my bike has no ‘name’). I feel as though I owe it to the world to be out riding. When I ride, I smile. And when I smile I think that’s a good way of making others smile – and when others smile, the world becomes a better place – so you see, that’s how I feel as though I ‘owe’ it to the world to ride. Not that you care, but it’s an extra-great day because I now have two functioning track bikes again. See, new fork day!:
I did this trick in celebration, and geeked out to make it an animated .gif file:
All bikes aside. The point of this post is to announce another milestone in the path to a doctorate. Today I set into motion the process of officially wrapping up my ‘provisional year’ by handing in a copy of my research proposal to the department’s office. While I still need to fill out the required form with my supervisor and get it signed off by all the higher powers, I’ve pretty much achieved all that I had been required to in the provisional year: Attend conferences, present to the departmental seminars, a body of writing, proposal, etc etc.
I can definately say that I’ve achieved something this year, but honestly, I don’t think that what I’ve achieved is best summed up in the proposal. The proposal is fine for administrative purposes. It totally gives whoever needs to know an idea of where I’m going. But I feel a big gap between how my understanding has developed in my mind and how it has been recorded on paper hitherto.
This year that lies ahead I hope that I will be able to close that gap. Testing my methodology in Wellington early next year will be key, as will presenting and getting feedback at the annual meeting of the AAG in Las Vegas in March. It is challenging at the beginning of a PhD. I’m not sure that I like the feeling of not being able to see the light at the end.
Anyways, that’s where I’m at, almost 10 months in. Deserving of a break? I suppose. There is a lot of work that lies ahead.
