Running out of intellectual steam -- not that my boiler had much pressure to begin with...

`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

`I don't much care where--' said Alice.

`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

`--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.

`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.'

- Lewis Carroll Alice and the Looking Glass

I am a bibliophile so I oftentimes identify with characters in books. Sometimes I am Scarlet O’Hara, a wicked stepmother, Bridget Jones, Eve, Venus, Joan of Arc. But here lately I have been more like Dorothy lost in Oz or perhaps Alice. I love the way Lewis Carroll writes so this quotation is fitting.

One thing that I had not anticipated when I started my doctorate is how working on my doctorate would steal part of who I am for quite some time. I crave those 3 letters. Not my M-R-S…I already have those, thank you very much. I want my P-H-D. I do believe with out my MRS it might have been very difficult to obtain the PHD. I will say that I appreciate my handsome husband and the supporting role he has played in me getting my degree. I realize I am not done, but I can see the horizon at this point. Day is breaking, and I am almost done.

My identity has been stolen or more accurately sucked up and absorbed by being a Ph.D. student all these years. I have to stop and wonder who will I be when I graduate? Another thing I wonder is when I finish school will I be relieved, exhilarated, or looking for the next big shot of adrenaline that life has to offer?