The meeting and its aftermath

On Friday I had a meeting with my advisor. So, PMP, what's the big deal? You have meetings all the time.

Yes, well I knew this meeting might be big, but I had no idea HOW big. It started out with my advisor being an hour late (good thing I didn't let his lateness even throw me off for a second), and ended with him shaking my hand and patting me on the back as I left his office with my life plan. I didn't realize that February 29 would be such a big day in the life of PMP. Funny coincidence that it's leap year. I wonder where I'll be in 4 years...

We hammered out the details of my schedule- for summer, for A exams, for proposal, for data collection and for writing. I hesitate to put the dates here, because I am afraid of potential wrenches (and understand that there could be a delay at any step along the way) but it all seems very reasonable right now. Scary as shit, but reasonable. In between he told me how much he had seen me grow and develop intellectually (intellectual maturity is my new favorite term), and how he was excited about my progress, and my project.

One purpose of the meeting was for me to have an update to give my potential and still unconfirmed third committee member. So, right after the meeting, armed with confidence, I emailed him and said that I was ready to have my first committee meeting at the end of the semester... and was he on board? And... HE IS. He just sent me the nicest email this afternoon, about how he is happy and honored to be on my committee. Because he is new there is still some bureaucracy he has to go through, but the bottom line is that he can do it. Even better, he wants to do it.

I am gradually letting these things sink in:

• I have a committee!
• I have a plan of work!
• I have a plan that should let me live with TMH more permanently come January 2009!
• I have a TON of stuff to do (which is actually good... I can organize my list now and know that all of the things I am doing are directly helping me accomplish my goals)!

So, things are coming together. All of the details that I have been stressing about are starting to get nailed down. Now, don't get me wrong: I know I have a long road ahead, and I know it will be full of challenges, but at least I know I am on a road... and the directions are getting less and less fuzzy. So, on that note, I best get back to work. Go, PMP!