What do you want to be known for?

I should probably figure out a better cadence for posting but here we are.

I met with my sponsor this past week a couple of times in an attempt to start to really refine what my research will entail. Per usual, my brain moves in a million differet directions and the challenge for me is finding the things that will hang together in a dissertation well.

In a sort of "toss spaghetti at a wall" approach, I threw all of my ideas at her and she rebutted with " what do you want to be known for at the end of this program - what do you want to be considered an expert in?"

It was maybe the most helpful way for her to frame that to me - I have a lot of interests and general questions but the idea that I would be an expert in something or at least be cited for a particular strand of work helps drive what I want to do. I've spent some time this week exploring that more deeply, having some conversations, and do a lit review to make sure that I'll actually be filling a gap in the literature.

I've also been thinking about how my experience in the program hasn't quite sunken in yet as evidenced by not quite knowing what to say to people when they ask how it's going. The seminar felt like a long meeting which isn't bad - just not life altering in the way that this program is actually fundamentally shifting my life - both personally and professionally. I imagine that will change as I get deeper into the program but for now, it's harder to describe the anticipation of change.

Anyway, it's a weekend and I'm trying to get some work done - we'll see how this goes.