Support

 

Truth stands, even if there be no public support.

It is self-sustained.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

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The other day I got to have lunch with my friend Terry.  He was celebrating my successful dissertation defense with me.  We talked about our doctoral experiences and the challenges we overcame and the support that we had through our processes.

I said, "You know, I actually found Facebook to be a place where I got a lot of support.  Sometimes it was positive comments on my posts about my progress.  Other times it was just seeing that someone else posted, 'I can't believe I'm in the library on a Saturday night working on a literature review,' and I would be relieved it wasn't just me."

He said, "That's great.  Of course in my day we didn't have Facebook, we just had carrier pigeons."

I then went on for about ten minutes about this story I had heard on NPR over the weekend about carrier pigeons in World War II and how they are monogamous.  And then I realized that communication is very, very important during your dissertation - and we all find our own way to access it and use it and figure out who is on our support team. 

And also that I might listen to too much NPR.