Coming out of the cave


I am sure there are other metaphors out there but emerging from the monastic cave seemed to be the first metaphor that came to mind.  Apparently, it's common, because there is a meme for it! Maybe Laura Gibbs can suggest other folklore tales and metaphors that are not cave-based 😄.

In any case, this past week I've been thinking: How does one get re-inducted into their various social networks after such a prolonged absence? Prior to starting my doctoral journey, I was quite active in a variety of communities on the web.  Some were MOOC-based, others were things like Virtually Connecting, and others were just banter on Twitter that led to blogging, and in return led to more discussion, banter, critical thinking, and so on.  There was even academic research and publishing in there somewhere.  With my entry into a doctoral program, I ended up putting a lot of things on the back burner. I still followed friends on Twitter and posted from time to time (or retweeted interesting things), but my role in these networks became more of a lurker (or liminal peripheral participant, if you will🧐).  I stopped blogging for a while (who had the energy for that when you're so deep into your research?), and if it wasn't related to my dissertation, I stopped doing other academic reading (which led me to have a huge pile of books in my to read later pile...). I even stopped teaching (something I really loved) for a while because I was experiencing burnout in trying to keep all the balls I was juggling in the air. 

When one begins a program of study, we tend to offer a lot of advice on how to succeed academically, but there really isn't much advice about maintaining a balance, nurturing connections, and figuring out the plan for post-graduation. Now, luckily I have a job (knock on wood, it seems to be pandemic-proof), and I still have my connections in my cohort and on the web so I don't have to figure that out.  I guess, the question is how does one, in this context, move from being an LPP to joining those discussions, reorienting themselves, and wayfinding 🤔. Also, despite all the writing, I've done these past few years, I sometimes have the sense that I am not sure how to write. What do other doctoral re-emergers think about this?

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