In order to make myself feel better as to how long my dissertation took, I made a list of all of the things I did after passing qualifying exams and beginning the dissertation process in June, 2014, and it took me until February of 2017 to finish. These are in no particular order other than when I thought of the thing and added it to my list.
- Continue to be a mother to my kids and wife to my husband.
- Played games with my children while typing the dissertation (Currently I have been told I am a typing “Nothing” from Teddy Ruxpin and have to hold a Cabbage Patch Preemie on my lap because she wants to watch me type).
- Had a third child.
- Continued to work at my job full time.
- Started an Girl Scout troop.
- Became the prefecture’s USAGSO Overseas Committee Chair.
- Became a Google Certified Teacher (Innovator).
- Became Google Educator Group Leader in Kyoto and started said group.
- Deployed Google Apps for Education at my school.
- Trained school during Chromebook implementation at school.
- Presented at 18 conferences about my work and professional life and/or research.
- Attended 23 conferences.
- Started an exchange program at my school with a High School in Florida and became the coordinator and lead for the exchange. Led students to Florida on the exchange three times.
- Founded a 4 month exchange program with a Florida High School where one Japanese student attends the American High School for 4 months, fall semester. Did this process three times in the duration.
- Started practicing Kyōgen, performed in the summer review once.
- Became a key member in TEDx Kyoto’s Augmented Reality Team for the 2014, 15, and 16 events.
- Presented with the TEDx Kyoto AR team at three different conferences.
- Joined JALT and started volunteering at events.
- more crap I can’t remember
More will be added as I go, “Oh yeah, I did that.” Note, this is my personal, make-me-feel-better-bragging list. This is a list that helps me feel good about the fact that I put off graduation for 2 extra years. Luckily I was not in denial and I was able to delay taking credits so I only had to take a few additional credits (why oh why are classes so expensive for doctoral students??) and therefore I didn’t have to pay for too many more credits than I should have had to.
I highly encourage you to keep track of your bragging list during the process. It will make you feel a helluva lot better.