Okay, so everything is new...
Wow, what a change a few days makes. First off, I sent off the draft of my FINAL chapter of my dissertation on Sunday!! Now this has been many, many, MANY years in the making. More than it should have. And I’m not done yet. But, this is a huge deal for me. It means that the great bulk, the meat, of my thesis is complete. I have revisions to write, an intro and conclusion, endnotes to finish and polish up, a bibliography to complete, but all of that qualifies as fluff to me! As you can imagine, I’m pretty happy at the moment! I plan to spend the next week working on our kitchen and other house projects that have been looming large! AND...because next Monday, on September 25th, John starts his NEW JOB!!!! So this is the best news ever, and isn’t it interesting that he and I are completing one stage of our lives and beginning another huge phase just about at the same time? Hmmmm....
So let me tell you a bit about the last four months. John left Home Depot on May 4th to make a leap into another level of his work life. He had been dissatisfied for a long time with working at Home Depot. It’s a pretty dismal place to work, and John was very underutilized (and underpaid!) there. BUT, after what we went through in 2001 with the recession (where John’s whole department was laid off and it took ten months to find the Home Depot job), there was reluctance on both our parts to rock the boat! John had to take the leap, however. His health was suffering, as well as his self esteem, and he needed to really go for what he wanted and knew he could have.
And, he did just that! The job he starts on Monday is with a really great company, Milgard, that makes high-end windows and doors. They are very progressive thinking, and really ecstatic to have John on board. We visited the company yesterday and people all through the ranks had heard of John and seemed quite excited about him. And the pay is great, very much what John should be making. Very wonderful work on my husband’s part!
Now we begin a new cycle of our lives. For me, it’s the ending of a 12-year quest to complete this dissertation. Battling illness and my own inner demons, and sometimes feelings of utter hopelessness (I ‘quit’ the dissertation twice), I definitely feel like I’ve climbed the mountain. I don’t get much of a rest at the summit, though, since I have revisions for my first two chapters and probably revisions for the third (and last) chapter. But the revisions are relatively minor and should be quite enjoyable. And then there’s the defense, looming larger and larger. Definitely a “I can’t wait to get it over with” experience, but one that I know will galvanize me even further as I begin to move forward onto a whole new career path.
What is that path, you might ask? Well, I’m not really sure yet, mostly because I’ll be navigating uncharted territory in some ways. I don’t want to stay in academics. Once I’m finished with this project and have my Ph.D., I don’t see myself teaching in that environment unless asked, i.e., unless I can teach what I want to teach. Part-time. As a guest. I do want to continue to write, and hopefully make a good living at it someday. I also am starting a new venture in my yoga practice. I’ve been a devotee of a particular form of yoga, Shadow Yoga, for over a year now, and this October I’ll be starting an intensive, three-year program of advanced study and training. At first I didn’t think I wanted to teach, but now I’m starting to feel the seed of something growing inside me that has to do with yoga and holistic healing. I have no idea what that means, or what form it might take, but it’s there and it’s definitely resonating.
I’ll have to keep you posted on that one! For now, John and I plan to enjoy some rest this week before he heads back to work and so do I! Thank you, our dear friends and family, for your generosity of heart (and sometimes of pocketbook!) in the past months and weeks. We love you!!!!
So let me tell you a bit about the last four months. John left Home Depot on May 4th to make a leap into another level of his work life. He had been dissatisfied for a long time with working at Home Depot. It’s a pretty dismal place to work, and John was very underutilized (and underpaid!) there. BUT, after what we went through in 2001 with the recession (where John’s whole department was laid off and it took ten months to find the Home Depot job), there was reluctance on both our parts to rock the boat! John had to take the leap, however. His health was suffering, as well as his self esteem, and he needed to really go for what he wanted and knew he could have.
And, he did just that! The job he starts on Monday is with a really great company, Milgard, that makes high-end windows and doors. They are very progressive thinking, and really ecstatic to have John on board. We visited the company yesterday and people all through the ranks had heard of John and seemed quite excited about him. And the pay is great, very much what John should be making. Very wonderful work on my husband’s part!
Now we begin a new cycle of our lives. For me, it’s the ending of a 12-year quest to complete this dissertation. Battling illness and my own inner demons, and sometimes feelings of utter hopelessness (I ‘quit’ the dissertation twice), I definitely feel like I’ve climbed the mountain. I don’t get much of a rest at the summit, though, since I have revisions for my first two chapters and probably revisions for the third (and last) chapter. But the revisions are relatively minor and should be quite enjoyable. And then there’s the defense, looming larger and larger. Definitely a “I can’t wait to get it over with” experience, but one that I know will galvanize me even further as I begin to move forward onto a whole new career path.
What is that path, you might ask? Well, I’m not really sure yet, mostly because I’ll be navigating uncharted territory in some ways. I don’t want to stay in academics. Once I’m finished with this project and have my Ph.D., I don’t see myself teaching in that environment unless asked, i.e., unless I can teach what I want to teach. Part-time. As a guest. I do want to continue to write, and hopefully make a good living at it someday. I also am starting a new venture in my yoga practice. I’ve been a devotee of a particular form of yoga, Shadow Yoga, for over a year now, and this October I’ll be starting an intensive, three-year program of advanced study and training. At first I didn’t think I wanted to teach, but now I’m starting to feel the seed of something growing inside me that has to do with yoga and holistic healing. I have no idea what that means, or what form it might take, but it’s there and it’s definitely resonating.
I’ll have to keep you posted on that one! For now, John and I plan to enjoy some rest this week before he heads back to work and so do I! Thank you, our dear friends and family, for your generosity of heart (and sometimes of pocketbook!) in the past months and weeks. We love you!!!!
posted by Alexandria at
10:16 AM
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