Part of the Journey Is the End…
–Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, Avengers Endgame (2019)
This class marks the start of your journey toward earning your Ph.D. in English in the Graduate Studies in Composition and Applied Linguistics (CAL) Program.
It’s a long journey, and this class is only one stop along the way. I’m glad I was here to help you begin.
I won’t kid you, it’s going to be a long, tough journey. You’re going to travel far and you’re going to get worn out. Sometimes it will feel like you are making progress toward reaching the mountain that Neil Gaiman talked about, far off in the distance. Sometimes it will feel like you aren’t making any progress at all. Sometimes you will feel excited and energized about the journey. Sometimes you will feel tired or frustrated or discouraged. As you travel, you will probably face a variety of detours and obstacles and even setbacks. And it’s possible that, at some point, the whole journey might just feel too hard, maybe even a little impossible. On the worst days, things may grow dark, and it will be hard to find the path forward, and you may stumble and lose your way.
That’s why I had you write a dissertation poem. Because writing, especially poetry, is magic. Writing can helps us imagine a world that is different, and better, than this one.
And that’s why I want you to post your poem where you can see it, every day. The poem will be your magical talisman to help you get to the end of your dissertation journey.
Whenever you feel yourself losing your way, just reread your poem. It has the best of you in it. Your strengths. Your values. Your hopes and dreams. The poem is magic because it has you in it, and, as the greatest stories always teach us, all the magic we need is already inside us. The thing that makes you a great student, a great thinker, and a great writer is your own desire to learn, to grow, and to become the best version of yourself. The poem is a guide to all that magic. It will lead you to your destination.
The poem is a reminder that you have a story to tell of how you completed a long journey and became a teacher scholar and earned your Ph.D. That’s a good story, and you have the power to write it. Keep telling yourself, “I won’t stop until I reach the end. I’ll just keep going, no matter what. I can do it.” I truly believe that each of you has the power to reach the end of the journey successfully. The magic of this poem is that it will remind you of the destination you were meant to reach: Your Ph.D. You will get there. You are meant to get there. Because part of the journey is the end.