Good morning! Several of you asked (on and off list) what I was going to
study and since I'm due to go to ANOTHER meeting in just a few minutes I'll
send a general note...
I have been accepted to the Social Psychology Ph.D. program. I am not sure
what I will focus on right now but I am most interested in symbolic
communication. As many of you know, my B.A. and M.A. are in anthropology
with a focus on archaeology. I have always enjoyed symbolic communication
in prehistory, however, most of what I'm interested in comes from burials
(that's where people really express themselves). Anyway, with the present
political situation it is no longer a truly viable occupation. That is why
I left archaeology last year (after 13 years). For this past year, I have
been working at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in the Research
and Development office. Our Organization trains all of the law enforcement
that work in SC. I do anthropological research for them. Statistics,
demography, attitudinal studies, evaluation studies, etc. I told my
supervisor that I feel like "the player to be named later" because I do such
a wide variety of projects. They love my background. I believe everyone
here is thrilled that I do not have a degree in Criminal Justice!
Anyway, the Soc. Pysch. program is only 36 hours (if they stick to their
word and do not make me take my M.A. hours again). Twelve of those 36 are
dissertation prep. so I'll only have 24 hours of classwork. The Department
is going to let me attend part-time so I will take 6 hours a semester. My
employer is working with me to rearrange my schedule but I'll still be
working fulltime. Not to mention that I continue to have three children and
one adult besides myself at home that I will still have to tend. I have
spent the summer teaching them how to run the dishwasher, do laundry,
vacuum, dust, etc. because I will not have ANY spare time once school starts
in August. My first two classes are demography and regression
methods...weedout classes. However, as many of you know, I have the
Sinclair stubborn streak and I like nothing better than a challenge.
A Sinclair story for the list,
One of my cousins, back in the late 19th early 20th century owned a sawmill.
A tree was growing up too close to the mill and needed to be removed. He
was just going to chop it down but all of his neighbors and family told him
it was too close to the mill and that it needed to be tied and carefully cut
so that it wouldn't fall on the mill building. He apparently didn't take
well to all of the unasked-for advice. Once he was made angry he grabbed
his axe, stomped out to the tree, and in front of several witnesses, chopped
down the tree. It fell on the mill and destroyed the building. He was
quoted as saying, "It was worth one damn mill to have my way!"
Kind of explains why I'm the way I am, huh?
Well, they're calling for me. Y'all have a great day! Thanks also for your
good wishes and interest in my studies. Stubbornness makes it likely that I
won't quit but your well wishes make it more enjoyable!
Darwin
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@mids.org
[ To get off or on the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html