I didn’t do it on purpose. I just had more urgent stuff to get off my chest. But without the two workshops I have attended I wouldn’t be where I am: ready to write, about everything, apparently…

The first workshop I attended was last Spring. The discussions were fascinating and very useful, touching upon the same literature I needed to acquaint myself with.

On the matter at hand, I learned two facts:

Fact 1: Writing a dissertation is ideally about finding your research agenda, one you would take with you in your academic career. You don’t need to write everything about your topic to finish it! You can leave some for the future, ready for your postdoc, first job, first book. Or just for others to continue pursuing it if you are not going to academia.

Fact 2: The dissertation is a school assignment, a damn difficult one, for sure, but still a school assignment. They want you to finish it! They want you to submit something and get on with your life.

Aren’t these facts liberating? They are precious. They are the absolute key to freedom! You still have to write it, though…

The second workshop was also fascinating. Students from different disciplines exposed me to cool topics I would have never heard about otherwise. I also understood more about methods. Not everyone writes in «economical» terms or needs to test hypotheses. Very refreshing to say the least…

The most important part about both workshops, however, has been the people, the unlikely community I didn’t know I desperately needed: all on the same boat and willing to go part of the way together, guided by experienced professors. I am forever grateful for their generosity.

The writing process is a hard path. I am not going alone.