Since my last post, I’ve enjoyed:

Conferences in the UK and San Francisco,
Collaborative research,
Castles, cobblestones, and a cathedral.
Cruising to Alcatraz (voluntarily),
Cable cars, and…
…a camera that captured over 1000 pictures…here’s just a few from York, UK 🙂

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Since my last post, I also taught a course
– and have officially completed ALL my coursework!

Hard.to.believe.
…no courses left to take…
…from now on…the only courses I plan on being in are ones that I teach 🙂

I made it!
I reached the top of my academic-course-taking-assignment-writing-class-attending mountain and am about to jump onto a new mountain range.

Next stop – candidacy exam… tomorrow!

I am nervously confidently looking forward to this exam.
I am passionate about my topic.
I am…ready…(I feel the need to say it again…I AM ready…right?) to defend my proposed program of research to my committee.

But I wonder – will I be able to sleep tonight?

I should prepare for tomorrow by getting a good night sleep…
I should be able to sleep well, knowing that I’m supported by great mentors while I take this next step.
I should also be able to sleep well knowing that SSHRC believes in my plans and abilities enough to fund my Ph.D. research with a SSHRC doctoral fellowship!!
I should…

But…will my nerves take a rest from all of the what if I don’t remember  _____? what if they ______?

While preparing my candidacy presentation – and trying to remember the big picture points and the path that has brought me to this point – I was thinking about The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. by Matt Might.

So, here I am. The night before my candidacy.

Pushing to perfect– practice and polish my presentation (…which I have to say is actually fun with ‘Prezi’).
Pushing towards making my ‘dent’ while keeping in mind the bigger picture.

By using Prezi, a non-linear and ‘zoomable’ program, I have created a presentation that begins with a ‘close-up’ of my project and then progresses by gradually zooming out to reveal a symbolic ‘bigger picture.’

I’ll happily share my ‘Prezi‘ presentation here…soon…but not yet…
I have a feeling I’ll still be playing with it for awhile instead of sleeping practicing my presentation…for a little longer… 😉

Update – Click here to view my dissertation proposal as a Prezi presentation