The First Committiee Meeting (Que dramatic music!)

Shortly after Christmas my first committee meeting was scheduled.  In order to understand the significance of this you need a bit of background information.  I have spent the majority of the semester, in essence, preparing for this meeting.  I have been looking up papers to confirm that this experiment hasn't been done before, what other experiments have been done that are similar, learning about peaches in Florida, looking up around nitrogen rates around the country, determining if zero nitrogen should be used in my study, looking up and making possible field designs... and all the other details that I could collect that might come up in my meeting.  

Additionally, I was creating a working hypothesis, which included my purpose and plans for the study, expected out comes, design details and measurements to be taken.  This continued to grow as I found new information.

Also during this semester I have been searching for people to be on my committee.  I needed three people from my department and one person outside my department in addition to my adviser.  This was especially intimidating to me since I am new to this department and university.  I worked my way through faculty member's pages until I had a pretty sizable list ready to run past my adviser. She helped me weed it down to the best options, with some backups because a lot of the people I picked are very busy.  Once chosen I need to meet with these members, giving them a mini-proposal of the study, and see if they were interested in being on my committee.  To my great amazement all of my first choices agreed!  All but one of the potential members was very positive and excited at the prospect of my project... one of the members expressed concerns that I had enough to make a PhD quality project.  This really concerned me but my adviser counseled me not to worry too much until after my first meeting.

On top of all of this I was trying to lay out potential classes for my next four years.  To earn a PhD UF requires students earn 90 credit hours, potentially 30 hours from my Masters could transfer so I was under the impression that I had to come up with 60 hours of classes.  Due to this I combed the listings and had a sizable list together before the meeting, but I was unsure of how many research credits I was allowed.

The meeting came and I was FREAKED OUT!  I had combed over all of my information multiple times but I still didn't know what to expect... and you all know me and planning!  Somehow I managed to miss sending the Working Hypothesis to one of the members so I ended putting the whole thing up on the dry erase board.  This proved beneficial for discussing all of the questions we had however, since we could all see what one another was talking about.  Introductions were made, and as I put the information up on the board the questions started.  Fortunately Mercy (my adviser) answered most of the questions, I was told by my friend Rachel that advisers will continue to help you through questions and even answer for you if you are unsure until your qualifying examinations, from that point on you are on your own.  The scariest question for me came about half way through when one of the members asked if my project was PhD quality, to my relief no one agreed with her and thought my project was completely acceptable for a PhD!  After discussing numbers, rates, designs, tree ages, measurements to be taken and seemingly a million other details we came to my class list.  I was surprised and excited to learn that technically, if your committee approved, you could take all of your credit hours in research and never sit in a classroom your whole PhD program!  Obviously they wanted me to take a few classes, but if they are all offered at the times promised I should be finished with classes the Fall of 2012!

With a few changes to my Working Hypothesis, a new field design and a whole different plan for my class schedule I left my first committee meeting greatly relieved!

This first semester has been a great deal more stressful than I anticipated, especially since we are pushing to get the study planted this Spring I pretty much need a lot of my Literature Review finished and my whole design and plans for my study done.  While the Lit. Review isn't written, I feel confident through the research I have done to move forward with this project.  I know I've gotten a lot doe this semester, but I came out of it much more drained than I anticipated for my first semester.  Part of the difficulty comes from my desire to be in control and on top of things, and I really didn't feel that way this whole semester as far as my project was concerned, I always felt behind, and it overwhelmed me on several occasions.

Now, at a point where I can both look back at last semester and forward to the next, I am bracing myself for another busy season of planning, installing, planting, fertilizing, writing and recording, but trying to acknowledge the progress I've made so as not to despair.  Hopefully after this Spring my years will get into more of a rhythm and will return at least my illusion of control!  

One thing this semester has pointedly reminded me of is God's provision through my lack of control.  You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now, but apparently this is a hard one for me to grasp!  The Lord is continually putting me in situations where I need to depend on Him, and reminding me that He will always pull through on my behalf and provide as He promised.  This year has certainly been lesson after lesson in trust... and as my Blog title reminds me; Trust is still a work in progress in my life!