Notice

I recently started a PhD blog: Vanilla Draft. Feel free to follow along if you're interested. Also, a special note to my non-RSS-feed-using family members: there is an option to subscribe via email on the Feeds for Syndication page.

Thanks to everyone who helped me recently to make the decision on whether or not to continue in the PhD program. I deeply appreciate your input, advice, and willingness to be a sounding board.

From the most recent post:

This last week, I had a mid-academic-life crisis where I found myself thinking and praying as to whether I would continue with the PhD program or not.

Why? Postponing progress would let me focus on other areas of my life that are important to me: family, friends, reading, playing sports, being outside, and sleeping.

Not to mention the fact that we're having a baby in a couple of weeks (God-willing). It's admittedly tempting to quit a program that is hard to do and doesn't promise much in terms of career payoff to spend more of it with the people I care about. When I think of it this way, it seems obvious that I should quit.

However, I really want to do the PhD, and I enjoy research, and learning, and reading, and writing, and working on hard problems. I feel that God has given me a desire and an interest in working towards this, and so, why not? Also, I have 90% of my coursework requirements already completed. Why would I stop when I'm this close?

After seeking counsel from family and friends, I decided, in fact, to continue with the program, but to reduce my load for the next semester while we get used to having a new baby at home.