Decisions, Decisions - Doctor Who?

I met with my advisor the other day regarding finishing my master's program and applying for the doctorate program.  I'm going to have make some choices which is always difficult for me. I always worry about making the right one.  It reminds me of a story I read once by Sylvia Path.

"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." 


I think of this all the time and yet, I still have trouble with choosing.  Sometimes looking too far into the future and planning makes moving forward so much harder.  This blog, Doctor Who will be a chronicle of my journey to becoming a Ph.D.


So I guess it's time to take the first step toward an goal and not away from one in fear.  GRE here I come.

The End is Near

January 2011, Really?  Why does it seem that the older I get the faster time flies.  It seems that I just don't have the same amount of time to get things done that I did when I was younger.  I have been hit with the realization that I'll be finishing my Master's Program this summer.  Being the organized, control freak that I am, I also begin to think...then what?  Do I continue on into the Ph.D program?  Can I even meet the requirements?  What about a job?  It becomes a mind boggling confused state of "what ifs."

Ph.D program means taking the GRE.  YUK!  A standardized test that is suppose to reflect whether you will be successful in graduate school.  Come on now!  I'm already in graduate school carrying a 4.0.  Now I have to take on a test that covers high school level algebra, English, etc.  I haven't dealt with algebra, geometry, etc. for over 20 years.  I don't remember that crap.

So as I get near the end of my Master's Program I need to make some decisions.  I meet with my advisor in two weeks to discuss the Ph.D program.  We'll see how that goes.