Dr for a year

Saturday was the first anniversary of defending my dissertation.

This milestone seems pretty unreal but also worth mentioning. I never had any expectations that finishing my degree would translate into anything meaningful in my day to day life and it hasn't. Even in my daily life doing science. Compared to the last year or so of grad school, my first year as a postdoc has been more challenging intellectually and I've become more convinced than ever that I really know very, very little.

This isn't surprising given that I made a pretty big leap in subfield between grad school and postdoc. And I know that my degree gave the experiences and knowledge necessary to be able to forge ahead in these new areas.

But still, there is some sort of dark humor in that getting the phd establishes me as an expert of some sort in what I worked on but my postdoc requires that I become incredibly comfortable acknowledging my vast intellectual shortcomings in the new field.

At least it gave me a good excuse to cook a fancy dinner!

Dissertation Day, illustrated

To paraphrase one of my favorite movies ever, 

'I can write a hit play dissertation. Why can't I have a little drink when I want to unwind myself?'

Brownie points if you can name it! 

Also, I didn't really drink out of the bottle. It was staged....and, sadly, empty.

Finally Dr. Albatross!

I successfully defended my dissertation on Friday! The public talk was well attended* and not too long **. I didn't really get nervous, in fact, after finishing it on Wednesday I was sort of at a loss for what to do with myself. Luckily, my mom was in town to distract me! 

The actual defense part was not what I expected. It was not an exam so much as a conversation with a number of suggestions. My advisor was very diplomatic in figuring out what will actually need to be done vs. what all was talked about. After an hour in the room with my committee, I have to add a descriptive section (2 pages or so), 2 new stats test, and a reorganization of Chapter 3. It is all very doable in the 2 weeks I have until the Graduate College deadline! Yay!!

There was a little cake/champagne thing at school, happy hour and fancy dinner to celebrate on Friday. Since then, we have been lazing around, enjoying drinks, food and the company of my mom and the Grackle. Today I am watching my Fantasy Football players rack up my second straight loss*** and trying to stay warm. I haven't been outside really in 3 weeks- when did it start feeling like January?!

* I thought it wouldn't be. There was a training/seminar series for some new departmental equipment, however it was cancelled the day before.

**All my practices were really long (over an hour).  

***But I'm still in 1st in my league and have already clinched my playoff spot. 

New Dr.!!

My friend, Kookaburra**, defended her dissertation yesterday. When I started my PhD program, everyone always told me 'Oh, you and Kookaburra would get along great!' because we both like crafts, music and large Southern states. Well, it was true. In addition to always having a super fun time together, she had a very different path than me in starting and getting through grad school. Overcoming different personal issues, academic setbacks, and difficult advisors; her experiences have taught me a lot.


One of her favorite sayings is "You define your own success." It is hard to remember this little gem when those people you look up to and learn from (profs and advisors) often have a very narrow view of success (tenure track position at a research institution) and a tendency to pass judgment quickly (anything else = complete and utter failure). Whether it is a family, a job at a teaching institution or a geographically limited postdoc, no one should make you feel bad about what you want. Despite this, they often do intentionally and unintentionally. That's seriously messed up. I applaud Kookaburra for having a full life in and out of science/academia and hope I can remember to define my own success even with her on the other coast*.

Congrats Dr. Kookaburra!!




* she also has a penchant for leaving inspirational post-its around her house. Maybe my desk plant will get one with this saying on it.

**Edited because I forgot to look up the spelling of Kookaburra. I'm new to birds. Please forgive me.