Back at School!

I like the smaller type better I think.

Yesterday I went to school, by myself, for the first time since just hours before I went into labor in May. I was there for a whole FOUR hours, and it was glorious. I had a huge grin on my face as I walked in the door. I got soooo much done in those 4 hours, despite the 30 minutes I had to take to pump milk in the middle. I felt like an ADULT. Man, I loved it. And I was ready to nurse my baby when I came home. I wish I could steal 3-4 stretches of dedicated worktime more often. I think my progress with school would be much faster with dedicated time.

So school...you may be wondering what I'm doing in school. I'm a few months away from finishing my PhD in Forest Resources. If I didn't have kids, I'd be done already. Instead, I'm raising a beautiful family and finishing the last of my PhD on the side. I'm hoping to be done this fall, because every extra term is paid for out of our pocket, and with no income from me, it hurts. Though I'm in forestry, I don't actually mess around with trees in my research. I'm a social scientist, which means I talk to people about trees. My dissertation research is on citizen-agency (Forest Service, BLM) interactions in planning and decision-making after large wildfires in the West. Pardon the pun, but it is definitely a HOT topic.

This fall marks the start of my 5th year working on this degree. My first year I worked on an unrelated project that was good experience but didn't exactly get my dissertation work going. I also met my future husband that year and was engaged by spring. The following year we got married and were pregnant shortly after. My third year in school started with the birth of my daughter. I took my prelims at the end of that year and completed most of my research the next, with my second child growing inside me at the time. And here I am, finishing my fourth year, finishing the analysis and writing, and caring for a nearly-3-month old and toddler at the same time. Sometimes I think I'm crazy. I think most everyone at school thinks I am too. But you know, babies come when they come and we love them more than anything else. School will come.

Right now I'm really excited to be working again. I am so close to being done I can taste it. I have a lot of hard work to go, but after 4 years of hard work, knowing you have only months to go...ahhh. Speaking of which, I should be working right now.