In an Interdisciplinary program for my doctoral studies. It is imperative to explain what makes a project interdisciplinary when applying and throughout the doctoral seminar course. For me, this program is a melding of my experiences as a librarian, as a sociology student, and having experience in a medical faculty. I became a sociology student Fall 2002, an official librarian Spring 2010 and part of a medical faculty in Spring 2010. These are huge milestones. So, what does all of this have to do with the PhD as a spiritual journey? Revisiting the past.
I eagerly accepted the challenge that university studies offered after leaving high school but had to learn to fit within the parameters determined by each professor for each course. These parameters were templates that depended on the professor’s independent views and whims, with a restriction on creative licensing. Often times my first question to ask the professor was how they wanted the work accomplished. Critical thinking was a prescribed aspect of my undergraduate.
We start out as generalists as undergraduates, becoming more specialized along the way through the Masters then to prove our worth through the PhD journey. That is the traditional route anyway, through the “rites of passage”. These days there are professional Masters Programs that offer a different experience where hands on learning outplays academic. Through a Masters, you develop the sills of thinking through conceptual and theoretical frameworks to then go on to study real people to obtain data that will be analyzed and deciphered by you.
It is scary to make decisions that will determine years of studies including the research question, rationale, and everything else. Being wrong could result in years of lost work. Heck, the possibility of this very article getting published scares me. Yet, I have found myself, as a librarian, counselling people who have had to start a project from scratch because what they originally wanted to do did not work out. My theory as to how to avoid such a scenario: plan.
After graduating from my Masters, I almost found myself back in university much sooner when employment prospects were low. After having applied to as many places as possible within Canada, I applied to continue my studies through a Masters of Sociology with the goal of a PhD in Sociology (fast track). Meanwhile, I completed two interviews for two different positions at the local university. On a March Friday, I learned that I had been accepted to a Masters of Sociology program with a small scholarship. The following Monday I was offered a job from the second interview at the local university. Furthering my education went on the side burner in favour of using my education to date as a means of employment to pay down educational debt and to afford living expenses.
I worked as an academic librarian since from 2010 to 2019. I graduated with my Masters of Library and Information Studies in 2008. As part of the one of the first-year obligatory courses in the MLIS program, I had prepared a portfolio including a 5- and 10-year plan. One of the items on my “plan” was the desire to do my doctoral studies. The caveat being that I would work for several years before going into doctoral studies; I wanted to have real life experience and a real-life situation to investigate. I take a lot of pride in my work and work hard at building a solid reputation over the years.
Getting into a doctoral program was no small feat either as I went through a course based master’s program. Therefore, I had to prove that I can write and do research. Finding a program that would fit my research idea was the other challenge until serendipity smiled upon me. I consulted on a project on campus in my capacity as an academic librarian, which put me in communication with another professor in another department who had done an interdisciplinary PhD and had nothing but good things to say about the program and her supervisor. Subsequently, I investigated the program where I found friendly voices who supported my journey despite not having the typical academic profile.
A sustainable, lucrative business is that way through a solid business plan. An example is to implement learned techniques to ensure that I do not burn out. For example, I had a migraine the other day and instead of going home and crawling under the blankets and suffering, I went home and did some self-care. That day it included some very slow yoga, a nice hot shower, and fresh air. I have cut my recovery time by more than half of what it used to be.
The journey is different for everyone. I figured the journey was the evolution of the PhD thesis project. What I did not expect is for the journey to turn into a spiritual and personal growth journey. The story of my journey, thus far, as a librarian, a student, a researcher and as a spiritual being has been amazing.
Originally written 2017 September 12.
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