The PhD Chronicles: When Senioritis Kicks in!

I have three Fridays left.  THREE FRIDAYS.  That's a very exciting thought. It doesn't mean I'm done with the program or even done with classes per se, but I am done with Fridays.  Three years of Fridays along with three 3-week intensives during June.  In total, about 126 day-long visits to campus.  Now, only three.  And truth be told, getting to these classes is a serious challenge.  

The finish line on a running track.
Source: Pete

My motivation is quavering to show up.  I've felt it since I came back from Spring Break.  Each Friday morning, I feel the pull to stay home just a bit more intensely.  There's a part of me that wants to rationalize this.  Given where I am with my research and my plan to write a dissertation proposal, there's nothing of substance to showing up in these last three classes.  By the semester end, I need to produce a rough rough rough draft of my dissertation proposal but that's it.  I'll then be working away at revising for six months.  But realistically, there's no compelling reason to show up for the next three classes.

Ok, there is.  There are my cohort family--great people who I have been with since it all began.  I want to be there for them and I want to be there with them.  This is a milestone for us to cross together.  There's also the fact that I don't want to entirely flake out and geniunely want to say that I finished and finished strong.  There's also the fact that there are faculty and members of other cohorts that I absolutely enjoy seeing and catching up with each week and will definitely miss.  

But there is a temptation.  There is a sense that now that the end is in sight--downright 20/20 vision at this point, that I want to be done all the more.  I think these next few weeks might be the hardest classes to attend as I feel the end coming.  But that's ok.  The tugging I'm feeling now is just indicative of the long journey it's been to get here.  So I'm going to make it and I'm so glad to be here.  But there will be some will-power needed to show up.  


  1. Acceptance...and acceptance
  2. Orientation
  3. Day 1
  4. Week 1
  5. First 2 Courses Completed
  6. First 2 Courses Finished
  7. Semester 2, Here We Go
  8. The Existential Crisis of the Week
  9. The Balancing Act
  10. Negotiating Privilege in Higher Education
  11. Zeroing in on Research
  12. Completing the Second Semester
  13. My Educational Autobiography
  14. So Starts the Third Semester
  15. My Educational Philosophy...for now
  16. PhD'ese
  17. And Sometimes, You Feel It
  18. Semester's Endgame
  19. Year 1, Officially Done
  20. Year 2, Week 1, Day 1
  21. Year 2, Week 1 Done! 
  22. 1/3 Complete!?!?
  23. Click...
  24. Day 1; Semester 5
  25. Share and Share Alike
  26. Mindful and Mind-Filled
  27. 5th Semester Down
  28. Day 1, Semester 9
  29. The Two Demons of My Doctorate
  30. When Senioritis Kicks In
  31. The Final Friday
Sub-series specifically about the dissertation:
  1. Dissertation Journal #1
  2. Dissertation Journal #2
  3. Dissertation Journal #3
  4. Dissertation Journal #4
  5. Dissertation Journal #5
  6. Dissertation Journal #6
  7. Dissertation Journal: QP Revised Edition

