WriteCast Episode 78: Interview with Dr. Cheryl Read: Finishing a PhD

Transcript

© Walden University Writing Center 2021

[Introduction music]

CLAIRE: Welcome to Write Cast: A Casual Conversation for Serious Writers, a monthly podcast by the Walden University Writing Center. I’m Claire Helakoski,

KACY: and I’m Kacy Walz. This month we interview Dr. Cheryl Read on her dissertation journey!

CLAIRE: Hi, everyone! It’s been a while and we are so glad to be back!

KACY: Yeah we’ve missed you!

CLAIRE: This month we are interviewing a familiar voice, Dr. Cheryl Read! You may remember Dr. Read from her instructor interview and our writing groups episode (Episode 62). Recently, Cheryl has completed her dissertation, and we wanted to have her on this month to share a bit about that journey with you all. Welcome back, Cheryl!

KACY: Welcome, Dr. Read!

CHERYL: Thank you! It’s so nice to be back!

KACY: Cheryl, can you tell us a little bit about your doctorate, what it’s in, and where you got it from?

CHERYL: Sure! I earned a PhD in English from Duquesne University, which is a small liberal arts college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My dissertation is titled Recommended Reading: Book List Books and Middlebrow Tastemaking, and in it I expand our previous definition of the literary middlebrow by examining book recommendations from the late nineteenth century to the present.

CLAIRE: That sounds really interesting! It’s so different from the subjects we pursue at Walden but Kacy and I have backgrounds in writing and literature too so it’s right up our alley I think. Could you tell our listeners a little bit about how the dissertation process went for you? How was it completing your dissertation while working fulltime and with a young kiddo at home?

CHERYL: Yeah. It was, without a doubt, the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And I’ve done some hard things in my life. I found out I was pregnant at the end of the same term when my prospectus was approved. So right when I was getting in to actually working on the dissertation itself. That was the timing we had hoped for when we were trying to have a child, but writing while pregnant was much more difficult than I expected. I thought it would be a lot smoother. Surprise! I then had a life-threatening illness after I gave birth that, alongside caring for a newborn, put everything on hold for a few months. Then I needed to jump into a job search, and I started working full time at Walden alongside my second year of dissertation work. Lots going on!

KACY: For real!

CHERYL: Yeah! So I had to be very creative and manage my time well, and luckily my job at Walden allows me to work flexible hours and to work from home, so I was able to use my best writing hours of the day for my dissertation instead of being in a car commuting to my job. So I’ve been very grateful for that! I used different schedules and strategies throughout my dissertation process, but for most of it I got up very early to write before my son woke up (who is also an early riser) and my workday began, before everything that makes your day crazy started…and I also put in a lot of time over the weekends. Even so, there were a lot of times when I had scheduled time to write, I had done everything to help myself focus, and I still couldn’t seem to get anything done when I sat down at my desk, so I had to build buffers into my schedule and adjust along the way to account for those rough days that kind of happen for no reason.

KACY: Wow, Cheryl! Earning a doctorate on its own is super difficult, but you had so much additional life stuff going on. It’s crazy impressive, Cherly. Could you talk a little bit about those buffers you mentioned? What do you mean? I know a lot of our students also have a lot of things going on in their lives and it seems like that could be some great advice that they could use.

CHERYL: I guess what I mean is being flexible when I was setting up a project management approach for my dissertation. So at the beginning of my dissertation process I would try to give myself these hard deadlines that I was like, “Ok I’m absolutely going to have a certain number of pages to my professor by this date—no negotiations.” And then I might have a bad writing day, or my kid might get sick, or something else could come up. So, I found, as I became increasingly frustrated with myself and felt really crummy for not meeting my deadlines repeatedly, that I needed to give myself some extra time as I was building in those deadlines, to just account for things going upside down on me. Things that I couldn’t account for. Bad writing days. And just saying “I’m going to try to have…I feel like this is a reasonable amount of time for me to do this task for my dissertation, to work on this section, or to accomplish this research goal.” But then not beat myself up if I didn’t meet that goal. Or maybe I had a soft goal for myself and then a firmer goal to get it to my faculty. Just those different approaches that build in a little more flexibility to account for all the craziness that happens along the way.

CLAIRE: That makes a lot of sense.

KACY: That’s great advice, Cheryl, and with this past year, it seems very important to have those strategies. So I know it’s kind of feeling like it’s impossible to get away from this topic, but would you be willing to share a little about your experience navigating your degree conmpletion during this pandemic? We talked about keeping up your motivation on our last episode, but do you maybe have any additional personal tips or words of encouragement for students?

CHERYL: When the pandemic hit, which as of this recording was about a year ago, something that was already very hard felt completely impossible. My dissertation didn’t get much attention for a few weeks because it honestly just didn’t feel like a priority—instead, I was adjusting to…I had already been working from home, but now I had my family home all the time because my husband was working from home, my son wasn’t in preschool anymore, so I was adjusting to our sort of new schedule and the loss of my solitude. It’s a lot. I was also making cloth masks like a crazy person because I’ve always sewn and that felt like a thing I could do as someone who’s not in healthcare. And I was reading way too much news for a few weeks there. I imagine a lot of us were. And I curbed that after a while.

              At some point, I realized that the strategies that had worked for me before weren’t working anymore under these new circumstances, so I needed to make some changes if I was going to get anything done. Working on my dissertation for an hour or two every day, had worked really well for me before. Once I was dealing with the pandemic situation it made me feel like I was stretched in too many directions when I was also working my job, just like before, and splitting childcare shifts with my husband so he could also work his job. I adjusted my schedule so that, instead of working on it every day, I could have longer stretches on my dissertation fewer days a week. Which I didn’t love, but at least I was making progress. Which I hadn’t been when I was trying to force myself to follow an every day schedule. Additionally, accountability was something that worked for me before. I had been someone who was motivated by trying to keep up a streak of workdays, like I would track how many days in a row I had worked on my dissertation and I got up really high a few times, and it felt really good. I was like, “I can’t break my streak now!” But now I had days when I just couldn’t work on the dissertation because of just…the heaviness of the world, and that had to be okay. So I had to make those adjustments for sure.

              I would remind students—even if you’re listening from the bright future when hopefully this is all behind us—that life doesn’t stop during graduate school. Over the time I was working on my PhD, I lost family members, I moved across the country—I moved from Pittsburgh where I was doing m y coursework back home to Minnesota and studied long distance. I became a mom, I started a job, I bought a house, I got a puppy. I did all kinds of life things that you’re not supposed to do in graduate school, if you’re following the rules. But, we want to put our heads down and power through, but it takes a long time to finish a degree. And even if you do everything that you can to put your head down and power through, life is probably going to throw some punches along the way, and you have to roll with them somehow.

              That being said, the challenges of grad school are temporary. The pandemic is (hopefully) temporary. (It’s feeling more temporary right now). The degree is something you’ll have forever. I thought about quitting so, so often, but ultimately I know that I’m not a quitter, and quitting the program would have been more damaging to me than making it through, even though it was really hard to make it through. If you’re in a place where you’re not sure how to keep going through your program, I would say, think about your future self and think about what he or she gains, what does your community gain, when you complete your degree. And what might it look like if you didn’t complete your degree. And just really weigh those for yourself. I find that motivating.

CLAIRE: You’re really an inspiration, Cheryl. Your motivation and persistence are so admirable. I thought about quitting my masters degree a few times and while the experience was really great, it made me sure a PhD wasn’t for me—so really I commend you and all our students who are working towards that goal. It’s so admirable. It’s so much work. And, frankly, having a young family too, having that going on in my life right now, I just don’t think there’s room for anything else! But you and so many of our students make it happen anyway. It’s really incredible. Although your experience was different than Walden students’, you still did it! What do you think helped you get through this process the most? What would you suggest Walden students look for to support them through their dissertation process?

CHERYL: First, I’d say to be proactive when seeking support. Walden Faculty and support staff (like the Writing Center) are all here for you, but ultimately this is your degree. You’re going to have to be the one to determine what kind of help you need and then ask for it. It’s not just going to fall in your lap. You need to take agency in your own learning and dissertation. If you don’t know where to go for that help, that’s where people can come in. But it’s a matter of reaching out, being the person who asks for help. So if you’re struggling with some element of your program, ask your faculty or advisor, and they’ll get you the help that you need. Because I promise, it’s out there. Walden has some of the best support services that I’ve seen. But you have to be the one to reach out and ask for it.

Second, let your family and friends help you. If you have someone offering to take your kids or drop off a meal during a stressful period in your program, take them up on it! No one needs to be a superhero and try to do it all. That’s just going to cause you to crash and burn. So let people help you!

Finally, I feel like this is said all the time, but I’m going to say it anyway: make space to take care of yourself. And by that I don’t just mean the bubble baths, the skincare, the painting of the nails…all those things are lovely, but also the doctor’s appointments, therapy, exercise, nutrition, sleep. We like to think of our brains as being separate from our bodies, but they are incredibly interconnected. We need to take care of them both. Think of taking time to do these things as an investment in your ability to be successful in your degree program. Not something that’s taking away time from it, but something that’s really contributing to your success.

KACY: That’s so important. And, Cheryl, you’ve already provided such great advice and inspiration, truly, but, before we close out, I’m just wondering if you have any closing words or any final writing tips for students as they work through their dissertation projects?

CHERYL: I’ll just say, be kind to yourself. Few people attempt a graduate degree, and even fewer manage to finish one. You’re doing something really hard, and you need to try as hard as you can to be kind to yourself along the way. Whatever that means for you.

CLAIRE: That is great advice. Thank you so much for sharing all your experiences today, Cheryl! And for supporting our students.

KACY: Thank you, Dr. Read!

CHERYL: Thank you for having me!

CLAIRE: We’ll have links to our previous episodes mentioned today in our show notes. Until next time, listeners, keep writing

KACY: Keep inspiring.

[Music]

KACY: WriteCast is a monthly podcast produced by the Walden University Writing Center. Visit our online Writing Center at academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter. Find more WriteCast episodes on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast app. We would love to hear from you! Connect with us on our blog, Facebook, and Twitter, and at [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

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