So on Monday, 16 March, I finished and printed my PhD research analysis. (And printed, and printed, and printed…) It was a monster of a document that by the time I was finished, took me three days to print and was nearly three feet (1m) high. As you can see in the photo, I stacked a dozen books next to the pile to give an idea of how large this mountain monstrosity was. This represented all the data and stories I collected from about 55 interviews with religious women in two countries (NZ and Missouri, USA) and notes from my transcripts. I analysed it all using Nvivo software. The information within these leaves was incredibly deep, awesomely vivid, and overwhelmingly too much.
As the pile grew bigger, I was having ‘OMG!!’ moments all over the place. I vacillated between euphoria (omg,omg,omg), denial (well, if I did really good research, the thesis will just write itself. Right?!) and wanting to climb into the nearest hole and never come out. The stages I went through while printing this monster mountain looked something like:
Disbelief:
I signed on for this??
to…Acceptance:
I signed on for this!
and finally…Resignation:
I signed on for this.
I was in my own personal blizzard. Thursday morning, I dragged my Co-Supervisor in just to see the pile of papers before they were punched and collated. Her hand flew to her mouth and her instant response was, “This is why you have to go through and decide which themes will be in your thesis and…
“…which will be used for later projects?” I finished the sentence for her. We’d already had our first meeting to start the writing on Tuesday back when the pile was only about a third of what it became. I told her I hoped I hadn’t wrecked her morning. She said that the pile of paper looked “just about right” to her. I didn’t know whether to be greatly relieved or run. It took me several hours to 2-hole punch and collate it all in no less than six 2in binders.
My primary Supervisor grinned in delight the next day on Friday when she saw the six binders organised in two boxes stacked one on top of the other on a trolley I usually use to carry luggage while traveling.
She congratulated me for going in, doing the hard work of analysis, and getting it done. I told her I sincerely appreciated her accolades and then we got down to the business of creating the Table of Contents for my thesis.
Since my office is in my Co-Supervisor’s Department located off-campus, I usually have to walk about 1 1/2kms to my Supervisor’s office past Dunedin Hospital and the medical and dental schools, this time wheeling the wee trolley behind. I noted the looks I received from passersby on the footpath which varied from, “What the heck is that?”, looking with perplexity at the burden I dragged behind me while others glanced down and then up again at me with knowing smiles. Clearly, they had done ethnography too. Or maybe I just looked totally like the beleaguered PhD student I am and they could relate.
But I rejoice because not only did this signal the end of a 3month marathon of 12hr days, it was actually the end of 2 1/2 years of field work, travel around two countries collecting religious women’s stories (and feeling so privileged to do it), getting it all transcribed via myself and a team of 4 transcribers, and analysis using Nvivo software. All the interviews and travels it took to collect my data has finally culminated in a collated pile of binders that hold such richness, all waiting to be written and stories to be told.
I couldn’t be happier. Really.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
This is great news. Thank you so much for sharing this historical moment with us. It brings so much happiness to in e’s own heart to see others successfully finish the work you aspire to achieve. May your PhD bring you all that you aspire for and so much more.
Thank you, Angie! It’s a pleasure to share; thanks for being here to receive! It is a delight to rejoice with others when you know they’ve worked hard to get to where they are. I anticipate the PhD will open doors. I hope that all you aspire to will happen too!
Hi from Madison, Wisconsin.
Looks impressive. That data mountain.
Getting my MS soon. I don’t think I am Ph.D material.
Yichuan Cao
Hi Yichuan,
So cool that you landed at Madison! What a great place to be a scholar. And my friend, I DO believe you are PhD material. I’ve always known that about you! Good luck with your MS; I’m very happy for you. 🙂
Thank you! I agree that Madtown is more interesting a place for me than the Silicon Valley. Beautiful lakes and overall, great college town. I think I will not do a Ph.D immediately at least. It is a lot of commitment and I have to be 120% dedicated to the cause. At some point, may be I will go for it.
Congratulations on getting the data part done. I am sure writing it up will take some significant time but I am happy that you are getting there.
I hope I will have some time to visit NZ and Australia next year. If such chance do present itself, I will drop by and say hi.
Yes, it will depend on where the job market takes me whether or not I’m still here. I’d like to be! Good on ya for doing a trip Down Undah. You’re gonna love it! 🙂
I’m tearing up over here! Well, not really (You know, the whole “keeping my street cred in tact” thing, and all). But I AM really, really, really proud of you Sherrema! Getting the coveted Ph.D. takes extreme dedication, sacrifice, and longsuffering. But the you’re almost there! It’s the icing on your already amazing life!
OK, fine. I’m tearing up.
Hi Dre! It’s super cool to find you here.
I know, right?! I’m pretty amazed at this journey myself. You have no idea how uplifting I find your words, my friend. It’s 9:20am on Wednesday and this was the message that greeted me at the start of my day. Awesome. 🙂
And Dre, darlin’, your street cred is always intact as far as I’m concerned. 🙂
Love,
Reem
Thank you for the inspiration.