Sarah has a book called 'The Shopping Expedition' in which a mom takes her children and dog to buy groceries. They make the list, wave goodbye to dad, and then off they go. The car breaks down. They walk through the desert, a jungle, mountains, and eventually end up as seafaring grocery seekers. Throughout the book, with each new challenge, the little girl as narrator says "But we kept going." She also saves her family from the cheeky monkeys. They eventually arrive at the shop on the shore, buy the groceries, and head home to tell dad about their incredible journey.
The last time I read the book to Sarah, I pondered it as a metaphor for my dissertation project. No one has a straight-forward dissertation experience, at least that I've met. It's at least a nine month project and for some a decade. The work is largely done in isolation, requiring much perseverance and motivation. Every person who 'dissertates' has most likely never tried to write a 200 to 300 page book, especially on an arcane topic, knowing that no one will probably ever read the product. If a marriage and parenthood are intertwined with the dissertation stage, life becomes a juggling act of dangerous proportions. I cannot imagine writing my dissertation without Tom journeying with me or Sarah telling me that 'she needs to write her dissertation too'. My mother-in-law queried my sister-in-law when I started the doctoral program as to whether I liked to write, 'because she better'. It seemed like such a silly question at the time, but now that I've been working on the project for a number of years now, I have to say that this kind of writing is far less invigorating than I had experienced with term papers or even preparing for a presentation. There is no immediacy to this kind of project whereas I always had a fixed deadline prior to this. Now I have a fixed deadline for my dissertation, 31 December 2009. I'm not sure how many days I have left, but I recognize that I must 'keep going' whether through storm, drought, sea, or jungle. Eventually I will reach the shop on the shore, return home, and share my unbelievable adventures with anyone who cares to listen.
