Finished! I finished my dissertation. I finished my phd program. at the end of this journey was an unexpected sense of drop, a sense of fall, or a loss, letting go all of a sudden of a goal I had worked towards intensely for the past six years. As much as pushing towards finish line was difficult, so is getting adjusted to a new chapter in life. A new chapter where I am no longer a PhD student. There are all these logistical issues, like finding a health insurance on my own, finding a full time job, applying to fellowship/postdoc positions, and figuring out how to prepare the dissertation to be published to a book. It’s only been a week since I sent off my official final draft pdf. I took an intentional active rest the past week. I think I’m ready to come out of an active resting period. Could that be possible to need only a week of active rest? Not sure. It’s weird not having a full plate of things to accomplish every single day, more things than I can get done possibly but nonetheless things that needed to get done. Now, I have to figure out each day what to accomplish. How to spend the day. Deep breaths are still very much needed and still helpful.
[Edit] Few hours later – I know it’s only been a week since post-defense and post-dissertation-pdf-submission but I’m ready to rock-n-roll and write again!
revalicekim 