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’m giving you this compass. It’s a magic compass.
When you feel yourself losing your way, pick up the compass and stare at its needle. The compass will point toward your Ph.D. Its needle will always point toward that goal. And when you hold the compass, the magic in it will help you find the strength and determination that are inside you. The compass will help you to know that the way is never completely lost, that you really can reach the mountain of your Ph.D. because all the magic you need is already inside you. 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 compass is a guide to all that magic. It will lead you to your destination.
The compass 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 compass is that it will always point you toward the destination you were meant to reach, toward your Ph.D. You will get there. You were meant to get there. Because part of the journey is the end.