Guidelines - friend or foe?

A couple weeks ago, I successfully completed my first advisory committee meeting. At it I had to describe and defend my proposed research study design and get feedback on how to make it the best possible study it could be.

Here's the funny thing about my program. The program is only in its 2nd year of existence, which equates to no set guidelines for these 'milestones' you have to accomplish along the way. When I asked what the format of the meeting should be, the field chair responded with 'seeing as we've only had one student graduate in this program, the format can be whatever you want it to be'

Fact: I don't do well without boundaries and guidelines

Fact: This program has little to no set guidelines besides - go forth and do research

Fact: The meeting, although unformal and unstructured, went well, I accomplished what I needed to, and I got the green light to start working on my ethics approval

Fact: Now, the rest of my summer and academic life is self-directed

Conclusion: How does a person who needs boundaries and guidelines ever going to succeed with self-directed research? This shall remain a mystery....

I Survived!

Yesterday was my first experience with organizing a conference.

One hundred and thirty people
One hundred and thirty individualized, personalized welcome packages
12 hired research assistans to organize and direct
10 break out rooms to prep for recording
1 day ending in total exhaustion

I must say that even with all the craziness of preparation (I can't remember how many meetings, teleconferences we had to confirm the order of the day), I am thankful for the opportunity. I can now add event planning to my ever growing resume. So even if this research assistant job eats up way more time than I'm paid for in a week, it is forcing me to experience a multitude of situations I would never have otherwise.

Now...off to Ottawa with Mike for a semi-relaxing weekend! (While he's at a conference, I'll be catching up on all that school work that got pushed aside for this conference!)

A Day in the Life of A Graduate Student....

1. Wake up - what time? Who knows - seeing as class only happens twice a week, a grad student relies on some deeply hidden motivation to get out of the nice warm cocoon they call a bed to start work on some notorious concept called a thesis. Lovely
2. Make coffee - truly the most essential start to every morning. Seeing as there is little motivation to get out of bed in the first place there needs to be some truly blissful experience when one does get up -- aka coffee
3. Answer the many emails that have poured in from your advisor about the research project you are a slave (i mean hired employee) for- being a research assistant sounds glamorous, but really, you are doing all the work that they don't want to do - printing papers, doing lit searches, entering reams of data....you get the drill
4. Read
5. Read
6. Read - I am not exaggerating....reading takes up the majority of my day - how this is supposed to advance my knowledge I have no idea, as the minute I read something, it flies out of my mind.
7. Wallow in self-doubt - questioning whether the thesis topic you've chosen will truly stimulate you for the next two years...
8. Chat for an hour or so with your friend who works in the office next door - truly the highlight of a grad students day as, mentioned above, there is not much opportunity for socializing when one reads the majority of the day
9. Question your sanity
10. Remember that you are privileged to be where you are, and that this degree will serve you in the future.