Well, the PhD applications have been completed and shipped off, and with that comes two things: 1) relief that I managed to get them all out before the deadlines with time to spare; and 2) never-ending nervousness that at this point the decision is entirely out of my control.
It’s very likely that this time next year I’ll be blogging from some cold place (because odds are I’ll end up somewhere cooler than South Carolina), reflecting upon my first term as a doctoral student. That is, if everything goes as planned. Answers from doctoral programs, I hope, will start arriving in the mail some time in February and March, leaving me little to do between now and then besides fret over what might be. (Oh, and of course I still have that thing called a thesis to work on, not to mention teaching.) In the meantime, I’m doing my best to remain philosophical and positive – that I’ll end up in the program that’s the best fit for me.
Now I just have to figure out how to type with my fingers crossed.