Finding the yellow brick road

Flipping channels in a Fort Lauderdale hotel room last week (more to come about that), I caught a glimpse of that cinema classic The Wizard of Oz. It was the scene where they discover that the yellow brick road had not led them to a great-and-powerful wizard but rather to a dude from Kansas whose hot air balloon went astray. Yet, even in his less than great-and-powerful condition, he showed them that along the yellow-bricked way the scarecrow had gained wisdom, the lion had gained courage, the tin man had gained compassion and Dorothy had gained a renewed appreciation for her community of origin.

I was struck by just how well their little story captures this PhD experience. I know this is a little cheesy but bear with me. It's late here and I should just be sleeping.

Almost every day, I have daydreams of two years from now when I reach the Emerald City of my "B exam" - the day I defend my final thesis and officially receive my degree. The reality is that I am still somewhere back in Munchkinland dumbly declaring that I am not in Kansas anymore.

I still have to find my travel companions (i've finally identified a team of 4 people who will hopefully be joining me in the next week or so). map out the yellow brick road (finalize my research proposal by January and defend it an my A exam back in Ithaca in February) and then skip along that shimmering path while watching for lions and tigers and bears (spend 9 months implementing the intervention and collecting data plus a year or so to analyze and write it up).

I won't go as far as comparing my thesis advisor to Belinda the Good Witch (she is however both kind and extremely intelligent), but I am hopeful that when I arrive at the B exam , the traits I've acquired along the way are not so different those Dorothy and her companions found - plus a bit about nutrition and a Kreyol vocabulary.

Anyone got an extra pair of ruby slippers they want to DHL to Port-au-Prince?