Done(-ish).

Today, at approximately 12:00 pm EST I successfully defended my last comprehensive (which is titled Confluences in the streams of birding, technology and animal studies and which I’ll need to upload & add to my academic writings). This is BIG news for a couple of reasons. The first is that I’ve struggled through the whole comprehensive stage. I understand their importance and without doubt my thinking has changed thanks to this stage in my PhD work BUT they act like such a psychological barrier between the beginning and ending portion of your PhD. Second, because I’ve forded this barrier (hmm…mixed metaphor there), I get to focus exclusively on my own work. From this point out, all the work that I undertake moves me closer to a dissertation and graduation.

It’s like I’ve crested a hill and can finally see my goal (waaay down there) at the bottom. And there’s no mixed metaphor there.