Amber Writes a Thesis:Part 3

So 2017 has came to an end and it is time to head back to classes. I’ve just completed my first week of this new semester and its been the first weekyest first week I’ve ever had. And this semester is going to be a weird one. First, of all when I asked the second chair of my thesis committee, I knew that she was going to be on sabbatical this semester and she was worried that that might hinder my thesis defending and stuff and things. But I knew that I was going to be at least semester late in graduating from about three weeks into grad school when my mother passed away. But now my chair is out on medical leave and I’m worried sick about him but that’s because worrying is what I do. My chair is also the director of graduate studies and the professor who is filling his role for the time being stressed the “You NEED to be out in two years,” thing during a meeting with him and the rest of my cohort. Now I know that he has no idea about my situation but I’m barely staving off a panic attack at the moment. And I’ll email him and let him know about everything because crying in front of professors is the worst.

Prior to the meeting we all had our photos taken for the poster and things I suppose. It was one of the more awkward things I’ve experienced in a while; walked in a camera happy professor and an undergrad that works in the office both standing there with a white couch in the corner and they directed me to stand in front of it. When I returned to the grad office I jokingly said, “I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen pornos that have started out exactly like that .” That elicited a good chuckle from my anthropological companions, and when the bio anth girl walked in her words were, “Well, that felt too much like a casting couch.” And then to express the weirdness that all anthropologists have, two others thought she wanted them to stand on the couch. Yeah, no other thought can really follow that in this paragraph so I’ll just leave that right here.

So where am I actually with my thesis? Well, I have to get a few weights for things I forgot to get before I went to the comparative collection and then I need to get counts and weights for the shells and id the few that can be. And essentially I’ve been looking at all of my papers for other classes as the beginnings of my thesis. I’m also trying to be more present at events in the department. I never developed the relationships and had the grad school experience I had hopped for for the same reason I’m not finishing in two years. I’m 3 semesters late but better late than never right?

But on an exciting note I will be attending the SAA Conference in Washington DC in April. So that’s exciting and I will be blogging and instagraming (So be sure to follow me on there!) during the trip and with my packing and preparing for it. Apparently women in science have a hard time figuring out what to wear for academic conferences. Or at least that’s what I gathered from the blogs I read when I realized I had no idea what to wear. So adventures abound…