I love Google. Today I actually looked up the phrase "bend over and take it." Fourteen million hits and it's in the urban dictionary - amazing. I looked it up because I got advice from a couple of people today that seemed to suggest that I have no other choice.
It has been suggested that a PhD program is a "hazing process." I have spent 4 1/2 years working on a degree that appears to have little value in terms of social status and even less monetary value, not to mention the 1000's of dollars in tuition and lost wages. I have been working on my dissertation for almost two years. But now the games really begin. If I understand the process correctly, my committee is charged with presenting a series of hoops that I must jump through before I can grab the brass ring. Sorry for the mixed metaphor but I'm not sure if it is a merry-go-round or a circus.
Anyway, I have been advised to bend over and, well you know. I am convinced that there has to be another way. What if I shared with my advisers how powerless I am feeling in this process? What if I told them that in many ways this piece of writing is my baby and asked them to be gentle? What if I asked them what they really need from me and suggested that we dispense with the game playing? What if I was honest and told them that I really don't need anything else from them - that it is time to give me the damn degree and let me go? What if I refused to participate in the hazing process?
This might just prove to be a real education...
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