One of the dilemmas of PG life for me was all the distractions I could find to make life more interesting. Well, you get to a point where anything is more interesting than writing a thesis. The harder it got, the more distractions there seemed to be. Writing this Blog is a distraction from other things I thought I would be doing this afternoon.
By definition, it’s the distractions that make life more interesting than doing the hard stuff.
Or is it that life is a distraction from something else.
There have been many to suggest that the ʻhere and nowʻ is not real, but that other places are, for example: “Never Land, Oz, Narnia, Elysium, nirvana, Shangri-la, Regno Caelorum, Wonderland, Paradisum, Zion, Avalon, the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Johnson, n.d., p. 2). So if life is a distraction, then so is the PhD.
But not so fast! As much as life might be a distraction, it is my distraction. It is for me to decide how to be distracted. (A very individualistic position to take, but I will not distract myself with other possibilities. I had a thesis to write.)
I decided to take on the thesis, so the real question is whether I want to continue to be distracted by it for a little longer. In the end I finished it. But it did not go away.
I have published some stuff and I am determined to do some more, but other distractions keep coming along.
I suspect that I am also becoming more comfortable with the distractions that I choose and life puts my way. I am better at playing with distractions and being in the moment.
Of course I can afford to say these things, because I have now finished the thesis. For those who havenʻt, your turn will come. Kia kaha.
Reference
A.P. Johnson (n.d.) Disrupting time. www.opdt-johnson.com
(I have not read this distraction yet, but looks like an interesting one.)
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