I’m finishing up my PhD this May! I have a lot of possibilities for what’s next; I would welcome even more! I’m open to hearing about any positions in your network local to the Triangle area of NC or open to remote work in:
It feels like submitting my dissertation has freed up an immense amount of space in my head and heart to start thinking about other things. I’m so excited about so many possibilities right now. I bought a bunch of sewing supplies, but my sewing machine thwarted me. It needs a thorough cleaning and oiling, and then I can try sewing again.
I’m back on the Artist’s Way train, doing “morning” pages that are really afternoon pages because the only quiet I can get is during childcare time, and that’s in the afternoon. (I could switch this to morning but it would disrupt some standing meetings I have, so I’m leaving it as-is for now.)
I’m reading John Scalzi’s You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop and it has me feeling energized about writing.
I’m reading Jess Zimmerman’s Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology and it’s phenomenal. I only annotate textbooks, so all my notes from this are commonplace-book style in my Bullet Journal and there are so many of them. Pages and pages.
I’ve got a stack of books about mending on hold at the library. I’m really thrilled at the thought of mending things. My kid’s favorite clothes get holes in them. I’ve got some leggings and pajama pants that could use a good mend. But mostly I love how this feels like a personal step toward sustainable living. Of course we should hold institutions and businesses accountable for their role in promoting sustainability, but that’s not a good reason to not even think about it myself. One day I’ll be able to go in thrift stores again without worrying and I really hope that by then I can start to see the things I find for their possibilities rather than just what they already are. I can dye things! Cut them up! Refashion them! Woohoo! Psyched to get this stack on Saturday and I expect I’ll write more about these things as I read them. (I’ve got a few web links about this, too; maybe I’ll put together a little guide.)
I’m thinking about writing a post or page that is essentially a digital care package for new parents: my favorite books, online resources, and tips related to parenting. You learn so much in the first few years (and more later I trust, but I’m only half way through year 5 so I can only talk about the first 4 and a half years or so). It seems a shame to just sit on that knowledge, or to only pass it on to people in little bits and pieces. Wouldn’t it be cool to just point people to a webpage? I think it would.
Come to think of it, I know little bits about all kinds of stuff. Maybe I should write a BUNCH of guides. One about cupcakery. One about producing community theater or local comedy. What else?
Helping people is kind of my favorite thing.
I’ve now taken an hour and a half of childcare time as runway time, so I suppose I should get down to work.
Anyway, welcome spring! LET’S DO ALL THE THINGS!
Want to read: When Women Invented Television by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong 📚
4yo: What are you defending?
Me: My dissertation.
4yo: Why do you have to defend it?
Me:
Friend: I was thinking like I needed to get in my 10,000 hours and be an expert.
Me: The 10,000 hours rule is not entirely evidence-based and we don’t have to be experts to find something useful.
Here’s a proposed title for my memoir, inspired by me being aggressively helped at a friend via text: TELLING FRIENDS THINGS I NEED TO HEAR: THE KIMBERLY HIRSH STORY
You know that thing where you’ve pursued something long enough that now you’ve pretty much been exposed to all the fundamentals of it, and instead of looking to someone else’s system should probably Frankenstein your own? That’s where I am with personal productivity systems.
Debating with myself about regalia since I’m not going to an in-person ceremony. Definitely not trying to get the fancy stuff I dreamed of 10 yrs ago, but thinking maybe I’ll get a new hood & tassel + a souvenir tam. One hopes to only get a PhD one time, you know?
“The academy is not designed to accommodate women, families, or the demands of modern life… Settling for mediocrity in everything but academic work is an insufficient solution to juggling work and family life.” - Dr. Rachel Leventhal-Weiner, Succeeding Outside the Academy 💬📚
“[The graduate program] hinges on a level of detachment from the corporeal, on a laser focus and dedication to one’s intellectual development.” - Dr. Rachel Leventhal-Weiner, Succeeding Outside the Academy 💬📚
