There are several things I am determined to do this year. I am not calling them resolutions. I am calling them plans.
1) Get the bulk of my dissertation written. Prospectus is done. I began the first chapter this morning. It is harder than I anticipated. I am working from seminar papers that I wrote for classes, but now I am sitting staring at this seminar paper wondering what I am supposed to do to it to make it a dissertation chapter. But I am going to figure it out, and I am still set on being a PhD by May 2011.
2) Go to England! Lifelong dream, often deferred. I think I have low self-efficacy when it comes to travel. I almost feel like I'm not allowed to go anywhere. Partly because Suze Orman would tell me we don't have enough money, and partly because no one in my family travels. But this is going to be the year. I will see London and Stonehenge and stand on a moor. Tentative travel dates are set for the middle of May. I have my own copy of Fodor's England 2010 that is becoming thickly crusted with pink post-it notes.
3) Write the novel. I know, how crazy do you have to be to write a dissertation and a novel in the same year? But this is one of those projects that I have been imagining all my life ("Oh, yes, when I grow up, I will write a novel and travel to England.") Well, I am grown up. I have the concept, the characters, the plot, and if I don't write it now, it will slip away, vaporized by academic paralysis.
Expect frequent updates on these three projects. In fact, if I don't update you frequently, get on my case. I need the motivation.
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