I think some of my friends and family are scared to ask me about my doctorate.
Many of you are probably wondering 'how' or maybe 'if' I am still working on it.
The answer is yes! I'm still writing and it's going strong.
A fellow student asked me to give him one piece of advice on completing the doctorate. I wasn't sure I was in a situation to offer a suggestion since I was struggling too. But I said to him: "Keep at it, do something every day to work on your dissertation".
Hardly a day has gone by in the past 14 months when I have not done even a little bit of work on my thesis. It's come a long way from clumsy draft chapters, put together without any thread or compelling argument.
Now, seven stronger chapters and 200 references form a 170 page document that is about to go to the editor before it gets one last review by my supervisors, and then the ultimate test...
the Expert Panel.
Yikes!
And no, unfortunately I don't have to go back to Australia to defend it.
But to be honest, I think I have been dragging it out a bit as I will miss my daily connection to the wonderful land 'down under'.
