It's possible that some of you have noticed I have been absent without leave from Walking Distance for several weeks. This could have been interpreted in several ways.
a) I have abandoned writing to pursue my true passion, moonshining.
b) I have been too darn busy writing my dissertation to do anything else.
c) I was kidnapped by pirates who refused to free me until I taught them the hokey pokey.
If you guessed any of the above ... you were wrong. (And shame on me that the correct answer wasn’t b.)
Truthfully, I have been busy, yes, but with the usual juggle of writing, working, family obligations, and the added bonus of holiday planning/celebrating/recuperating. On all fronts, I suggest I was successful, as progress was made, work was accomplished, family time was happily spent, and the holiday was especially enjoyable. While I did not keep my nose to the proverbial grindstone on the dissertation writing to the point of agony, I did move ahead quite a bit, and for all this good progress, I am feeling good about where I am in that process.
Excited, even. I feel it coming together. I can see it happening and I can confidently say that I expect to finish my PhD in 2012. It won’t come easily, of course, and why should it? It has been a bear of a journey so far, and I don’t expect it to be any different as I pull it all together now.
The reason I have been quiet here is simply this: I did not have a particular message that I felt was significant enough to waste words. As I sit here now at 5:19 a.m. after having been up all night (ah, the familiar state of insomnia, a PhD candidate’s normal state of being!), I realize that this is an important message to pass along.
You see, my friends, there are times when silence is truly golden. Sometimes, it’s best to say nothing and savor the power of the unspoken.
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
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