Thesis Antidote

Hello World!

It crossed my mind this morning that having a 100,000 word book and a few academic papers to churn out before that rapidly approaching final deadline just might not be enough...and hey presto - a blog was born! I thought that a cheeky wee blog on the side might be a nice cathartic way to rant about the joys and sorrows of being a PhD student, giving my endlessly supportive friends and family time off for good behaviour.

Those close to me have shouldered the burden of my enthusiasm/disappointment/stress/ambivelance (delete as appropriate several times a day) for the fifteen months since I signed my soul away, committing myself to produce a doctoral thesis in three short years! Yikes!

As I make a good start into my second year (yep...reaching the halfway mark now) I find it hard to describe what kind of rollercoaster ride this experience is. From the highs of giving your first international conference presentation, to the lows of no-show participants, a lack of a significant result, hours spent transcribing and coding and any number of obstacles and frustrations that set you back along the way.

Why do I do it, you may ask? Well...as it says on the tin...it's all about Becoming Dr Ainsworth (and a few other more fulfilling and important reasons along the way!).

I won't bore you with the details of what I'm actually studying - maybe another post - but for now I'd just like to say thank you for reading (even if I'm the only one that reads this!)

Ciao for now!