The Highs & Lows of Writing a Dissertation Prospectus

As experienced by me:

• low: getting started (see post below)
• high: realizing you've written other papers that can "offer" material
• low: staring at the computer screen for days on end
• low: mysteriously and painfully tweaking neck muscles after staring at the computer for days on end while exhibiting very poor posture
• high: rereading what you've written and thinking, "damn, that's kinda good"
• low: rereading only to realize that what you've written doesn't make a lick of sense
• high: completing a chapter description
• high: inventing new sandwiches
• low: getting up at 5am (i went to grad school to *not* get up at 5am)
• low: dreaming about prospectus-writing
• high: in the dream, your friend tells your sleepy dad a heart-warming story about pearl jam while you're whole family laughs in bed together, charlie bucket-style
• low: carpal tunnel syndrome
• high: finishing! woo hoo!
• low: revising all summer long