UberNoggin

Now that I’m finally done with the dreaded PhD I can, in addition to freaking out about my research agenda (see yesterday’s post), pick up long neglected hobbies that make me happy such as knitting.

I never really stopped knitting but I did have a kind of love/hate relationship with it for a while because every time I let myself pick up my needles over the last few years I suffered endless “shouldn’t I be doing something more productive”-guilt. But not now! Now I can flip through patterns with glee! I can start something larger than a pot holder without the angel on my shoulder giving her little Tsk Tsk sounds. Now knitting is a celebration of the monkey that is no longer on my back.

Jumping in with both feet, as I always do, I reactivated my Ravelry account, picked out an awesome fair isle sweater pattern, made friends with the lovely knit shop ladies, and then spent 24 hours or so in the last week happily knitting and purling away. The result will be a pretty cotton sweater I can wear this summer. The current progress looks something like this

Tonight I’m off to my first knitting group meetup at Scholar’s Inn! Martinis and knitting. What could be better than that?

*Insert typical “I know I haven’t blogged in a while” junk here as if anyone cared anyway*

Well, I graduated. The gates of all the secret PhD knowledge are now open to me. I know the secret handshake and get to say “That’s DOCTOR Smith-Robbins to you, punk!” Unfortunately, the title doesn’t give me all the answers. It seems that I’ve arrived at a clean slate. A big fancy slate but a blank one nonetheless. I’m in this odd spot where I get to decide what I want to do rather than just completing tasks that others have assigned to me. Heck, I don’t even have to worry about a job because I already have a great one that gives me the flexibility to choose my own path. But which path shall I take?

I’m in this odd spot on the line between several disciplines. I’d like to bring them together in a unique way and carve our a niche answering questions that not only do I care about but that I’m uniquely qualified to ask. I have one foot in rhetoric and communication, one in social science, one in technology, and one in business. That’s a lot of feet. I know that I want to put my weight on the business foot but I’m not sure how I want to leverage the others.

I’ve started by making a huge list of things I’m interested in, questions I wish I knew the answers to, and finally knowledge areas I feel comfortable in. I’ve also decided not to be swayed by what I’m already known for because I don’t want where I’ve been to determine where I’m going unless that’s what I choose. For now I’m playing the “what would I like to be known for in five years” game to see how I feel about certain trajectories. My moleskin is bursting with lists of this and that but so far nothing is giving me that “Aha!” feeling. I suppose if it were easy to live with direction and purpose everyone would do it, right?

Still, though it may be daunting, I’m excited by all the possibilities, potentially undiscovered knowledge, and adventures that each path may lead to. And I know that going down one doesn’t mean that the others are closed forever. But which to choose first?