Monday, August 10, 2009

Rejuvenation Station.

Anybody out there? (Tap, tap, tap).

Is this thing on?

Hello?

Testing, testing, sssssibilance, sssssibilance...

OH! There you are! How nice.

My precious petunias! Many thanks for waiting patiently while I sorted out my general state of ennui. Now I am better! I had a little bit of a personal crisis of confidence, or maybe it was a crisis of inspiration? Definitely it was a crisis of OH MY GOD I've been in grad school for four years - FFFFOOOUUUUUURRRR YYYYEEEEAAAAAAARRRSSS - and I'm still a freaking gee-dee emmer-effing student. The following are the ways I would have defined my current job recently. STUDENT: one who is in no way in charge of her life. STUDENT: one who is in the process of being beaten down to a quivering intellectual pulp, only to be awarded a fancy degree when the last smidgen of resistance has collapsed. STUDENT: one who occasionally freaks the hell out and needs to regroup so as to maintain the illusion of control over his or her own life. The problem with a PhD program is that by the time you've been in for FOUR YEARS and are ready to just about scream bloody murder, to say screw this, I'm out of here, is it all right if I just turn in a one-page summary of my research findings... well, that's when it's got you by the short and curlies, because for the love of all that is holy, are you really going to walk away from four years of work? I mean, come on! You're over half-way there! Just duck your head down and keep plugging away. So I had to deal with that.

Want to know what I came up with? OK, I'll tell you. I am not a student. I mean, yes I am a student, but I'm not a STUDENT. The problem was that in the past few years what with master's thesis and comprehensive exams and 9 month research trips in Nicaragua that I really couldn't wait to be over, I'd gotten so good at keeping my eyes down and my steps plodding that I forgot all about HOW AWESOME life is, and, concomitantly, how awesome I am. I am Amazing Cheastypants! This world is a crazy and excellent place! I love to travel and learn! I have a fantastic family and wonderful friends! I am so lucky! I love to dance! The air sparkles when I walk through a room, and my acres and acres of beautiful bouncy hair bring gasps of joy and wonderment to people everywhere! Naturally, I have a biased opinion of my own grandeur and excellence, so feel free to disagree, but this is my blog, and if I can't toot my own horn here, then what's the freaking point.

Anyway, this is what I came up with. I will continue to work on the dissertation, and in two years folks will be calling me DOCTOR Amazing Cheastypants, but in the interim, I need to do something to harness my creative juices, celebrate the things I think are awesome in this world, and build a space in my professional life in which I AM THE BOSS OF ME. So I think I'm going to start a talk radio show. I'll tell you all about it in my next post.

11 comments:

Kate said...

Proof that prayer does work! Cheastypants is BACK!! (I am only kidding, I did not pray that you would start blogging again. I just made a few small sacrifices, burned some effigies, a little chanting....ya know, the normal stuff.)

Now that your head is appropriately swollen and your ego seems to have been stroked, I am, to put it mildly, delighted that you are back on the blog train. Woo, woo! (Ugh, I am sooooo lame.)

You ARE wonderful and fabulous. And I think you should audition for So You Think You Can Dance.

Welcome back.

Frank Irwin said...

Yaaaaaay! You're back! And awesomer than ever!

It took me seven years to get my Master's degree. And then I stayed in school for a couple of years after that. Just sayin'.

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy you are back. You are AWESOME indeed.

MUAH

Prunella Jones said...

Cool idea! We need some good sense on the radio to compete with all the right-wing wharrgabble.

Renny said...

Whoa, Kate, are you obsessed with So You Think You Can Dance too???

Oh yeah, and welcome back Cheasty, yada yada :)

Organic Meatbag said...

Welcome back, frauline! Your self-confidence is impressive! It rains upon me like the many boulders being hurled at me by Zeus upon Mt. Olympus... I shall follow and learn from you...

Bev said...

Welcome back!! So glaad your time away helped you regain you confidence & perspective! Yay! You are truly amazing!

Cheasty said...

Hey everybody, I'm so glad you all came back! Thanks for all the props and the laughs. Onward and upward!

Frank Irwin said...

Props and laughs? You mean like Carrot Top?

Oh, wait...he's just props.

Anonymous said...

and a matter of fact HOLLA! at cheasty's return.

i love when you speak of sparkles in the room and your acres of bouncy hair. SO TRUE.

so about that sidekick thing... ;)

Cheasty said...

frank, i have no idea what you're talking about sadly. carrot top?

and anonymous I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!! :)