Anxiety!
I barely slept last night. There were mixed emotions. I was excited to meet my cohort and I was also terrified. This doctorate is a big step for me and I want to ensure that I gain all of the required knowledge and skills to be successful. So what happened? It was awesome! There is something about being in a room of highly educated people all with the same goal. It was inspiring. I felt like I was where I belonged. All of us were terrified about the 2 courses simultaneously for 8 weeks. I think I will still be terrified until after those first two courses are completed. My fear is not the courses themselves. My fear is all of my other obligations on top of being in a doctoral program.
Creating a time management schedule for the first course along with my obligations was ok. Everything seemed to work well and the rigor was just enough to introduce the load to my family. After this residency, I will need to sit down and rework my schedule for the fall. I work multiple jobs and run a business. I am going to need to hire someone to lighten the load for my business. Everything else should fall in line as those schedules are more flexible.
Day 1
I am terrible with names, but thanks to Atomic Habits, I have learned to pair two things together that will help me remember other students until I can remember their names. I know. Why not pair something you know with their name? That does not quite work for me. However, I can tell you which student works for PWC, Georgia Tech, was a mechanical engineer, who sews, who likes to ride ATV’s, who works in cybersecurity at a bank, and who lived in England. I just cannot recall their names except Sebastian because he said his name multiple times and said that is what he prefers to go by. Wes also said the same thing. I have to get better at remembering names. I think this is a side effect of working in information technology for so long. I know computers by their IP addresses and never memorize the names. The numbers are easier for me.
Aside from meeting a room full of great people, I also met several of the instructors. I was familiar with Dr. Sandoval as I have been emailing back and forth with her for a complete year. Dr. Floyd presented some great information as well. I was a little jealous because I started an Ed.D program in Florida, but when I moved to Georgia I was not permitted to complete the program because I was no longer a K-12 teacher. Dr. Spangler seems to have the same personality that I do. I also noted that he was an Associate Professor with a doctorate from MGA. That was enlightening as Kennesaw State University will not offer a tenure track position to professors with professional doctorates. Now I can start doing research for universities that hire professors with professional doctorates. Possibly even start working as an adjunct at one of those schools and resign from another school where I am an adjunct for time’s sake. There was one more speaker whose name I cannot recall. He talked about his doctoral hat and how graduation should be our goal. I should have written their names down because they both had great things to say. On day 2 I will take more notes and hopefully not disturb other students with my typing.
Dickey Farms was pretty nice. I have never had peach ice cream before. It was a little saltier than I expected or it could have been the sweetness of the peach cobbler that made the ice cream taste less sweet. There were two students who witnessed a racist incident while at Dickey Farms. I personally did not witness it, however, one of the employees approached us as we were leaving to as what happened. As I listened to the other student’s account of what happened, I wish I was in the area when it happened. I have had to deal with racism on many occasions and I have found that a simple conversation seems to ease tensions in most situations. Not all situations, racism sometimes is accompanied by hate which can be dangerous. Typically, it is simply a misunderstanding or a personal experience that someone has had which makes them react in a certain way. Either way, day 1 of the residency is complete and I must rest up for day 2. I will be prepared to take notes, ask questions, and learn other students’ names.
