It was a good week

Lots going on at campus, and some of it has been frustrating.

The working relationship with the History Department has been hard to build, and, at present, it's very fragile.  So, this week having to do a bit of damage control was not initially a pleasant task.  But, all's well that ends well.  And I think we may actually end this one a bit ahead.

And then, I had three of my six student teachers arrive after school  - on a Friday afternoon.  All just checking in, no problems, just wanted to share what a good week they had had.  That made my week!

Now back to working on a paper for publication/award.  That's possibly the hardest part of my job - making myself write about things that I haven't wanted to look at for such a long time.  A dear friend, and fellow PhD, told me right after I had sent the dissertation to the library for binding (and before walking the stage at graduation), that I wouldn't want to look at the document or the research for at least two years.  How right she was!  It has been just two years this month since my defense, and it's so very hard to look at the data.

I find mistakes that even the "ruler lady" in the Graduate School missed on review.  I find vagueness in my analysis and interpretation of the results.  And, it's still very hard to get motivated about revising and condensing the dissertation for publication into at least two different articles.  Alas, that's the life of an academic. and the one I've chosen for myself.

Oh well, there's always barn building to be done on glorious days like today!  ;-)  It was a good week.