One Big Holiday

It's been a while. My life has been ridiculously busy. I'm at the point where it is just never-ending. I feel like I'm running on empty (come on, sing it with me Jackson Browne). The most exhausting part, of course, would have to be working on my thesis. I'm currently in the revision process (my committee members are looking over my draft and suggesting changes). At some point, you just want to be done with it all. I am at that point. In Canada (or possibly just SFU... my only experience of Canadian schools is SFU), the grad program is designed for completing your Master's in two full years (six semesters). While in the U.S., if someone is on track they will probably graduate in the spring. Here, if you're on track, you graduate in the summer. So that maybe adds to my desire to be done already (because in my mind, I think "If I was in the U.S., I could have been done already.") But then on the other hand, I am glad that I am part of a rigorous program with really high standards. It has improved my education, skill sets, and I'm really proud of my thesis and all the work that has gone into it. With that said, I totally want to be done already.

But I am not looking forward to the thesis defense. I'm sure it won't be as bad as I imagine (though I have heard some horror stories). There are three committee members and, after I give my schpiel on my thesis, each committee member asks me a round of questions. This is then repeated. So there will be two rounds of questioning by the three committee members. Then questioning from anyone in the audience. And I know that if you're at the point of your thesis defense, you have a good thesis. Your committee wouldn't let you defend if you had a bad thesis. So granted my thesis is in good shape if it makes it to the defense, I'm still not looking forward to the defense. For some reason, I just don't look forward to be putting on the spot and being questioned by professionals about my work that I have dedicated two years of my life to. So once the defense is over and I am done, I will finally breath a sigh of relief.

I've also been really busy working on a paper/presentation for a conference. I presented at a Sociology of Families session at the Canadian Sociological Association conference. The presentation went really well and I got a lot of great feedback. But I'm glad that it's done. I feel I'm crossing more and more things off my to-do list and the end of my grad career is approaching.
And work of course always keeps me busy, but I enjoy it. I was promoted to a research coordinator (I was a research assistant). So now I'm in charge of organizing and managing a research project and training research assistants. So that keeps me really busy.

It's crazy to think that my time here is almost up. If everything goes to plan, we will leave here by August 1st (and possibly earlier). On one hand, I'm looking forward to leaving because that means I'm done with grad school and I get to have at least a little break (which involves seeing family, friends, and other things in Utah that I miss). But on the other hand, I'm also really sad that I'll be leaving here. I really like Vancouver. It's so beautiful. I like the weather. I like the green year-round. I like where we live -- I like our apartment, and the trees, and the view. There are places here I love. There are restaurants I love. There are people here I will really miss -- and that's always the hardest to leave.

It will be exciting (and scary) to move on to the next phase of my life -- whatever that may be. It's kind of neat to think I will be living in a new place (which at this point, could be anywhere -- which adds to that excitement/scariness). I know I want to get a job in the social research/social policy realm (e.g., working for a research corporation, or a think tank, or an NGO, or possibly even a congressperson), but I wonder what job I will have. I wonder whether it will be a career and something I stick with for a long time. Will I be done with academia? Will I go back for more? The possibilities seem to be endless right now for where I end up and what I end up doing. But then it feels scary to be making decisions that you feel will affect the rest of your life. I know I'm still young, and realistically speaking, I will probably change jobs more than once (I'm from Generation Y, hello!). The first job I take out of grad school probably won't be the job I'll have until I retire. I won't be stuck with something if I don't like it. So these decisions don't affect the rest of my life (necessarily), but I feel like the decisions I make in the near future will affect the next part of my life -- it will affect where I live, what kind of financial situation I'll be in, it could affect where I'm going to be in the long-term.

At least at this point, I'm not planning on getting a PhD (but that of course is subject to change in the future). I feel like I'm ready for something new (i.e., leaving that buffer period of attaining education). I feel like I have an idea of what I want to do and I actually want to see if my idea of what I want to do is actually realistic or if it's right for me. And there's comfort in knowing that if it's not what I want to do, there's always the possibility of something else. I could try to find another type of job or I could go back to school to figure something out or get the degree necessary for the thing I want to do.