Comps Season

Well they arrived. My comps came today, so I have until August 8th to complete them. They are, well... comprehensive! All hope of working on internship applications and my dissertation have gone up in smoke. I'm thanking the powers that be that there have been administrative complications with my new practicum and I won't start there until the second week in August. Whew! Dodged a bullet there for sure! Saved me from my own poor planning. :p

As it is I am going out to my folk's place to meet my sister for a once through of what they left in the old house week after next. We want to get everything valuable out and remove tax records and so forth since the house is now sitting vacant. I'm covering for my supervisor at the Hall while he's on vacation, too, so I'm working 4 days a week now, but that will end next week. Thank heavens!

I'm sure this won't be so bad once I sit down and begin chunking it and setting a schedule to get it done, but I confess, two paragraphs in and I was feeling serious resentment about having to do an academic task with a deadline during my precious BREAK!!! As much work as I had to do without this, at least it was all on me to get it done or not. It seems that dissertations, internship applications, and practicum work are all kind of applied stuff that feels like 'mine' as opposed to some artificial construct that equates to a meaningless hoop. I know most places have comps, and I did this for my Masters, but in that case I also knew about it from the get go, and it happened after everything else academic was done.

Just being a peevy little kid right now I guess. WHIIIIIIINE!!!

A PhD friend of mine told me that the whole point of doctoral programs is to break you and I should just focus all my energy on getting through it. I really want to have a good experience somewhere in there, too. Is that an unrealistic goal?