Friday, December 12, 2008

A particularly frustrating morning

Well, I'm in my last weeks of my PhD and I'm scrambling to write my dissertation. On top of that my husband is putting all this pressure on me to get life worked out. Geez how I hate how all of these things are on top of each other. I hate the emotional roller coaster that waves in and out of my life. I hate then trying to compare myself and my situation to other people and trying to see if maybe someone else has it worse and that I should maybe curb my unenthusiasm and just do what would make him happy. I feel like I'm constantly trying to figure out how to make him happy and he just keeps beating on me (mentally). It's tiresome. I just want to focus and get this dissertation written. I sooo want to take a break after all of this and just be for a while. I never took a break after my first degree. I had planned to take a year off and figure out what I wanted to do. I had planned to get my mind together and just work and make some money. Instead what ended up happening was that I got rushed into a doctoral program. I had planned to go into the doctorate anyway, I just wanted some time before I started to rest. 6 months? 9 months? Instead because of the nature of academia I rushed into a program. And then I rushed into this program that I'm in now. Technically I'm glad that I did what needed to be done. But right now I'm just so on the verge of cracking. But there isn't any time to crack, there isn't any time to break down. There isn't any time to just be. I would probably enjoy taking a year off after this PhD is finished and have a kid and get a job doing something sort of related, and make some money. But that's not what's in the cards for me. Instead I'm working my tail off trying to organize a Post-doc for myself, manage to deal with the relationship with my husband so we don't fall apart (we're hanging on threads right now), and manage to get him a visa, and manage to get him a job, so that maybe he'll be satisfied enough to actually do what is needed now. No, do I really want to spend another few years on a shitty amount of money working to get a post-doc line on my resume so that later on I'll get a good job in a university. And then on top of it my husband doesn't even want to go to the states really because he wants to get his certification in engineering so he can provide for the family. yes, life is very stressed and frankly I don't get enough satisfaction out of it most of the time. I made promises and committments that I can't nor do I really want to get out of. But given that I'm now married to this man who has so much control over my life I am forever needing to somehow explain to him how life looks to me and forever fighting wiht the fact tha the just won't understand. and it's a constant drain on me. Do I want to divorce? No, not really because given that we have a daughter together and I will not desert her, I will be forever stuck in this location until she is 18 and I am able to go back to the states to be with my family. meanwhile one of the reasons I got married and had a child so quickly was so that my family would benefit. and here I am on the other side of the world from them and they aren't getting any of the good stuff and we're constantly eating a bitter life. Ugh. That's what I can say for the moment. Definitely a hard period to get through and I sure hope to hell I get something good out of it at some close point.

3 comments:

post-doc said...

I wish I had good advice, but it sounds like you're doing all you can right now. When I have days like this - overwhelming and with no end in sight - I try to take an evening off. Read a book, take a bath, go for a long walk somewhere pretty.

I've not taken a break either, starting the next job the day after the old one ended. It is draining. But there's hope to find a post-doc somewhere wonderful that allows for time with your family and gives you a chance to rest. If my experience is normal, it just takes a lot of interviewing to find one of those. So keep watch for a good opportunity, let your network of colleagues and mentors know what you'd like to have and hang in there.

TikiBarSoap said...

Oh my God we could be twins! Lol I am in a similar situation. Trying to write my dissertation, lining up a post doc I don't want to do, and stuck in a shitty location because my husband doesn't want to move. He always tells me I should be happier but it's really hard to convey the amount of work and sacrifice when neither party is willing to yield. To top it odd I don't know what to do with our daughters school situation in a few years. Uggh! I think I am going to crack sometimes too, lol!

Hye said...

This is fantastic!