Proposal Anxiety

It's getting a little bit down to the wire...the dissertation proposal that is. After several months of focused work I finally turn in my proposal to my committee tomorrow. It's pretty good I think, but unfortunately what I think doesn't matter too much. It's what the 5 people on my committee think that will make the difference.

Each of them has two weeks to read and evaluate it. Then, on April 30th, I defend it in front of the five of them. It should be just fine...I know that in my head. But it's a terribly unnerving process to have to go through. I appreciate it to some extent, and know that the appreciation will grow with time, but a big part of me just wants to be done with it.

Any study or thought piece I publish in the future will not be held up to such scrutiny. This is the longest research publication I will ever have to write. I will never have to synthesize so many different bodies of literature as I have in the last several months. It's just a big project with so many people who can shut it down.

Oh well. Clearly I can't be that worried about it because here I am, blogging about, and it's due tomorrow!

Cheers,
Nate