Data collection delayed again

Right now I should be in St. Paul finally conducting interviews but alas another delay. Unfortunately, the executive director of the association I am working with fell and is out of commission so she asked if we could push the interviews back three weeks. “Of course” I said and while I’m very sympathetic (these things do happen), I guess I’m just a little frazzled with the time it takes to complete a dissertation. I realize that not all dissertations take 5 or more years to complete, but many of them do so I shouldn't be so hard on myself. However, it has been 4 years now of serious working and I’m just ready to move on. It seems like it has been one thing after another, first it took me 2 years just to find a topic, then another 6 months to put together a proposal, then the hardest part was putting together a committee, which took about a year and ½, then finding study participants (another 6 months), getting committee members to allow me to hold a proposal hearing and advance to candidacy (another 6 months). Ugh! Will it ever end! I’m venting but staying focused. I think this has been more than anything else, an endurance test. I just keep thinking and hoping that once I complete all the interviews and start analyzing the data the rest will be smooth sailing.

So now I leave for St. Paul on February 17th. I will be interviewing Hmong women who have been born in this country and those who have been here less than a year. I am truly excited to meet these women and listen to their stories. For those of you less familiar with Hmong people, their culture has recently been minimally showcased in the new Clint Eastwood movie “Gran Torino”. Hubby and I saw this movie on New Years Eve and Clint was absolutely spectacular. I also loved the fact that he did not hire professional established actors but instead looked to the Hmong community for aspiring actors. Well, the next time you hear from me writing about my dissertation it should be after my data has been collected. Until then...