| It has been a roller coaster for the last 24 hours. My son had his Viva, an interview where he has to explain why three years of work/research he had undertaken should be worth awarding a Phd, yesterday and every one was on tenterhooks as to what the outcome would be. Well just before 6pm yesterday we found out – he passed and once he has made a few minor corrections to his thesis he will be able to wear a floppy hat rather than a mortar board at any formal function he should attend in future (Ha Ha).
Needless to say my wife and I were ecstatic but also made me think about the last three years and the hard road it is to being awarded your doctorate. A good friend of mine who is an emeritus Professor described the journey a Phd researcher goes through as similar to travelling the a forest. You start off knowing exactly where you’re going but once inside you seem to loose your bearings and cannot ever imagine you’ll ever get out. Then slowly you start to see the other side of forest and you realise that you’ve been on the right journey all along, even though during the bad times in the middle of the forest you’ve been wondering around aimlessly. So it has been with my son. There have been some really tough times in the middle of the research when nothing seemed to make sense and self doubt would creep in. However, suddenly everything started to come together then there is heart ache and frustration of writing a 40k word thesis. Apparently humanities Phd theses are longer but science and technology thesis can be packed with hard facts, data and charts. So should any parent of a child who is researching their chosen Phd subject should ever read this, of the child for that matter, let me give you a word of advice. It is going to be hard, it is meant to be or anyone could do it, there are going to be many dark days but in the end it really is worth it – honest. Simon Marchini |
Simon's Blog 