I met with my adviser today, after a mucho stressful morning. First there were the slow lap top issues, then printing issues (my printer does NOT work well with cheapo paper) and then I got stuck in back up. They closed half the lanes of the Ben Franklin bridge for road work . . . . which was to change a sign! Three miles of back up traffic for one sign. I was so angry.
The meeting went well. I gave him my chapters and told him my concerns. We talked about a bunch of stuff, he was excited about what I had found. Then we came to the topic of this conference paper. He basically told me exactly what to talk about, which is the results of what I’m finding. My concerns were that since I hadn’t fully explored everything in my data I might say something that I’ll end up disproving. He said “Who cares, it’s just a paper!” Not the answer I expected, but a good way to look at it I guess.
So I have to sit down, basically refresh my memory on ALL my data, and then quickly draw some conclusions from the sites in my study. Basically I have to write the conclusion to my dissertation before doing the bulk of the actual analysis! This wasn’t what I was expecting to give my talk on, but oh well. This shouldn’t be too hard, after doing all the fieldwork I have a general idea where it’s all going. Tomorrow and Friday Ill probably spend the day reading through my data and taking notes and crafting an outline. Saturday and Sunday I guess I’ll be writing the draft of my dissertation conclusion. To bad I cant actually consider it all done 😉
Dustin
You see, when we “expect” we either get one of two responses. (1) that our expectations are not met as we set them out and/or (2) that we are pleasantly surprised by an answer or response we did not expect to get.
Expectations are just pre-packaged resentments my friend. Hang in there, you will do fine at your presentation. Think good thoughts and breathe deeply. It is said that when we make plans – God laughs. Expectations are problematic for me because I usually never get what I expect, but I always get what I need.
*winks*
Jeremy
You’re going to be great. Like your adviser said, it’s not the end of the world if you later prove that a premise is wrong. You follow the new data and see where it takes you. People rarely get things perfect right off the bat anyway. I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit based upon his reaction to your work. He seems to believe in you, so why not run with that? :0) Good luck as you read over your material and conclude the draft of your dissertation.