Today -- o frabjous day, callooh callay -- I finished a draft of the last chapter of my dissertation.
In my field a dissertation is usually four chapters. In the first, you explain why this is an interesting question and what other people have said about it. In the second, you spell out what you're going to do. I wrote the first two chapters in the fall of '08 in preparation for my prelim, and then rewrote chapter 2 last summer and fall to reflect what I actually did. Chapter 3 describes your results -- that's the 40-page monster I sent off earlier this week. Chapter 4 is discussion -- what it all means, how it fits into existing research, what questions you've raised for other researchers to consider.
I've been working on chapter 4 in small bites for a while. After all the coding and analyzing it's been really fun to be opinionated. Sometimes I would just open the document and throw in a quick note to myself: this measure of vocabulary diversity = BAD. Later I would go back and put it into researcher-ese.
My mother-in-law came down yesterday and stayed overnight, and I've been writing up a storm while she watches the kids -- fixing the earlier bits and tying them together, and writing writing writing all the pieces that still needed to be written. I just finished. The last word is "hope." :-)
Way back when I was in the second semester of this program, Arwen left me a comment about asking for the intercession of St. Thomas Aquinas and Our Lady Seat of Wisdom. I thought, "Hey, what a great pair of intercessors." I have asked for their prayers every day since then. It seems perfectly right for me to finish this draft on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.
I need to review this draft before I send it off to my advisor, and I will have plenty of revisions to do in the next 3.5 weeks before the document is ready to go to my committee. But you know, once it's written down, you've got something to work with.
I am going to hug my kids, and see if they're willing to go to Mass with me this evening. I am so relieved. Tired, too, but mostly relieved.
I just read this and once again told my husband how amazing your undertaking has been. CONGRATULATIONS JAMIE!
Posted by: Sarah in Ottawa | January 28, 2010 at 04:58 PM
Awesome! I can't believe everything you have accomplished in the last few years. I am amazed that you have undertaken it at all, much less with such success. Well done!
After you finish, officially, your life will seem positively boring.
Posted by: Sarah | January 28, 2010 at 06:30 PM
Congratulations, Jamie!
Posted by: Tracy | January 28, 2010 at 09:45 PM
Way to go!
Posted by: Lucy | January 29, 2010 at 06:47 AM
Wooot! (And a big shout out to St. T and Our Lady! ;-D )
Posted by: Salome Ellen | January 29, 2010 at 07:10 AM
Yayyyy! go Jamie go! From this point on I felt like the revisions were endless but all do-able - it's like you said, once you've got something to work with, you can see how it WILL all come together. You're incredible! and kisses to any recovering snotty babies.
Posted by: rachel | January 29, 2010 at 12:28 PM
oh, jamie, i am so very very very happy for you!!!
Posted by: pnuts mama | January 29, 2010 at 02:15 PM
Wow! Way to go, Jamie! Hope you can take some time to savor this milestone-- you absolutely deserve it.
Posted by: Laura | January 29, 2010 at 03:31 PM
Congratulations! I am just at the beginning of the dissertation process--putting together a committee--and every story I hear of successfully finished dissertations gives me hope. You rock.
Posted by: JaneC | January 29, 2010 at 11:48 PM
OH dear, that's awesome! And I know how it feels (in part, because I never had any moments of relief, my dissertation was just such a huge white elephant of a thing...).
Posted by: Lilian | January 30, 2010 at 01:29 AM
That is an amazing accomplishment. Relish it!
Posted by: Renee | January 31, 2010 at 03:46 PM
"And hast thou written Chapter Four?" she chortled in her joy.
Congrats! What a feeling.
(Or, I imagine it would be quite a feeling: I finished mine quite literally by the skin of my teeth, no time to revise, by the grace of God and my adviser's patience, and the friends who made sure I was fed in that last push for the finish line.)
=)
Posted by: Kristin | February 01, 2010 at 05:43 PM
You have worked really hard. I know that these years have been difficult as you have adjusted and re-adjusted your notions of where you are being called and exactly what does a mother look like. You have come many moons from the gal that dropped the poor butter lamb head long into your cake (was it a cake, worse was it a doberge cake). And yet, you have not changed, but become more yourself.
It is hard to believe how long I have been reading your blog. Congratulations.
Posted by: Lauren | February 02, 2010 at 02:18 PM
Jamie, how wonderful! I am truly in awe.
(And I'm glad St. Thomas and Our Lady SoW helped!)
Posted by: Arwen | February 02, 2010 at 09:50 PM
I'm in awe, too. It's amazing how focused and dedicated you have been to this project. Congratulations!
Posted by: Jody | February 07, 2010 at 09:09 PM