I’m happy to say my mostly silent and lengthy absence is over. I successfully defended my dissertation last Friday, November 22, 2013.
Many things have changed for me and our family during this period of research/study. Among the most obvious are that we relocated to Texas and I am now teaching at Arlington Baptist College and had a baby boy, Zachariah. There have been a lot of other changes, too.
My friends who know something about the relative value of various stressful situations say that my stress level has been off the charts during the course of my doctoral research for the following reasons:
1. I had a career change.
2. My dad died.
3. We made three moves: international, in-state, and in-city.
4. We had a baby.
5. We bought/built our first house.
6. I taught full course loads each semester while researching and writing:
Fall 2011 – 12 hours
Spring 2012 – 12 hours
Summer 2012 – 9 hours
Fall 2012 – 15 hours
Winter 2012 – 3 hours
Spring 2013 – 15 hours
Summer 2013 – 12 hours
Fall 2013 – 18 hours
7. I started a business, Discipleship Travel LLC, which specializes in Israel Tours.
8. I led 3 tours to Israel.
9. I wrote 136, 206 words and referenced 309 other works in my dissertation as well as wrote a journal article for publication.
10. I taught a weekly adult Sunday School class for one year.
My friend, Todd Bolen, who recently completed his PhD at Dallas Theological Seminary told me something to the effect of “after you finish your dissertation, it doesn’t get better. Other projects keep coming.” I’ve already got a number of things waiting in line, many of them involve writing. I’m hoping to do a series of journal articles that come from my dissertation, and am considering a few books, too. So, stay tuned and let’s see what develops here.
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