Looking Back on 2 Years with a Ph.D.

Two years ago this week, I defended my doctoral dissertation in telecommunications (technically mass communications) and cognitive science at Indiana University.

As with so many things in the past, this "two year" figure is mind-blowing for the fact that it both seems far more than and far less than two years ago.

So much has happened since then. We moved to Columbus, Ohio, and spent a year at The Ohio State University. Then for reasons that are largely family oriented, we moved to Lubbock, Texas, where I spent the past year at Texas Tech University.

I built a psychophysiology lab at both places, and I trained graduate students to work in each place. In so many ways, that must have taken more than two years.

At the same time, June 2005 could be yesterday. I can remember holing away at the education library at Indiana to proofread yet one more draft of the dissertation before handing it over to my advisor, Annie Lang.

All this time my kids are two years older and my hair is two years, well, less dark brown.

Two years. Seven hundred and thirty days.

One third of the "tenure track" has passed by. We accomplished a lot, but we could have done more. That's how I always feel. There's always the one additional data set that we did not get collected or the one additional manuscript that we did not get out the door.

We'll keep trying. I'll keep you posted on the progress. In a week or so, this interminable summer class will be finished, and the research will begin in earnest. Look for some cool figures here in the near future.