I've just been in awe these past 9 months Travis has been in this program. He is doing so well! We're almost done with year one! He is in a five year program; the first two years he's in classes and doing research, and the last three years it's all research {oh we are excited for years 3, 4, and 5!}. For him it's a 24/7 job; he is such a hard worker and great opportunities have come and are coming from that characteristic.
He comes home around 5pm or 6pm for dinner then gets right back to to studying and working. He's often up through the night until 1am or 2am---sometimes even close to 3am finishing assignments. I often think of how life will be when this is over and he has a job and comes home at 5pm and is home at 5pm. That doesn't really seem possible! He does take Sundays off completely though, no homework, research, etc. and that has been our saving grace. Sundays we can refuel for the rest of the week.
This semester has been an especially heavy course load. He's taking a pretty intense seminar at Duke too. Many nights I'll go to bed while he's still studying, then I'll wake up to feed Jake in the middle of the night and Trav will just be going to bed!
On one of the these nights, I went to bed close to midnight and Travis stayed up about 2 more hours to work. I woke up at 4am to feed Jake to find the house spotless. He knew that was stressing me out that day and he stayed up to clean it all. He is one of the most selfless and thoughtful people I know. I am so grateful for how hard he is working to provide for our family and to put himself in a position to have a great job in the next few years where he can spend time with us too!
In my experience the first couple of years of a PhD are really hard, then it gets better once they're doing more research. During Ryan's first year it was really lonely because he would often stay on campus studying until 11:00. I've heard wives refer to themselves as dissertation widows during the last year, though, so I guess that's what I have to look forward to next year! Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteI know exactly where you are Jessica! We used to joke that when Dave was finished with his residency we would find out once and for all if we really liked each other since we hardly spent any time together during school and residency. Of course we were kidding, we managed to have 3 kids during those years so we liked each other plenty. You are a super supportive wife and we love you both!!
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