11 January 2012

From the mountain top


I rarely blog from the mountain top. Here I am, on the mountain top: let me blog.

I had supervision today and supervision meetings tend to bring me down to earth in the worst way. I usually feel great before them, not so great after them. Today, however, was different. I did what I was supposed to and completed what I needed to and the conversation was... good. Very good. I am just about finished with my analysis: should be done in four weeks time, and then I will begin writing up (assembling) my thesis. Writing up, according to my supervision team, should take about 6 months: my 1 August 2012 deadline is still in tact. With seven months to go, that's pretty good, I think. I see how I will get there from here, something I haven't seen before. It's bizarre.

I'm back, more or less, where I started (or where I was in July of last year when I first drafted my thesis): metaphor, categories, and impoliteness, but with a crucial final step of analysis, positioning. Positioning takes me the final step and ties together the whole of the analysis. By 8 February, I will have all of my analysis done, and an outline for the thesis to talk through with my supervisors. And then? Well, I think it will be a bit like colouring in the missing bits. Lynne gave me two theses to read from previous students, and they will serve as a kind of colouring book in some way for me. Fill in these bits. 

Also, I feel like I backstopped my health slide and am back on track. I found a much better online tool for health and wellness, one that doesn't punish you with red and green numbers and orients towards eating well. I've spent so little time worrying about it today compared to the last three weeks. I know how much I weigh, that I'm not gaining. Feels great.

And job prospects or no job prospects: I see the worst case scenario at this point and it's... not that bad. I see a future starting to creep in. A good one. A healthy and happy one. Staying hungry won't be a problem.