a writing block

Don't worry! It's not my dissertation, it's this blog. I think I've been so focused on writing the past few days that I haven't been able to think of anything exciting to write about here.

Yesterday my dissertation writing companion said that she couldn't wait until we were writing our acknowledgement sections. I agree! When I look at other dissertation acknowledgements I often consider what I will put in my own, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. If you've read any, have you noticed that no one ever says, "And most of all I would like to thank myself for all the effort I put in, for all the fun I gave up, for all the long nights, bad coffee and stale popcorn. This dissertation is a result of my hard work! Thank you me!"

Well, why not? As much as there are other people around you that help you and support you in the endeavor, writing a dissertation is a pretty solitary process. I think that is the reason some people never finish...it is so easy to be distracted by life, seduced by a job, depressed by the lack of closure on a project. It's hard to be interdependent when working on a project that requires a great deal of solitude and independent thinking.

Of course I will have plenty of people to acknowledge when I finish...but it's also good to think about giving myself some credit.

Addendum
This afternoon my weekly dissertation support group met and we came to the conclusion that the only people who really care if we graduate are each other, friends who we started the program with, and family members. It's sort of depressing to think about.