Endings & Beginnings
It's finally over. Four years, three months, ??? days. At last I can write "Doctor" in front of my name.
This was actually a dream about 24 years in the making. I still remember Spring Commencement 1988 at Henderson State University, sitting in the sweltering heat at (then) Haygood Stadium, wearing a sleeveless yellow knit dress. Sitting with the band while Mr. Evanson conducted "Procession of the Nobles" as graduates filed in, followed by the faculty. Dr. Branstine, Dr. Hesse, Dr. McAfee, The Doctors Rye, wearing their doctoral regalia.
I thought to myself, "THAT'S going to be me one day. THAT'S what I want. I'm going ALL the way."
I packed up my saxophone and climbed into my 1984 Pontiac Phoenix, loaded down with a ton of crap from the sixth floor dorm room in Smith Hall that I shared with Stacey Fraser and contemplated this idea all the way home to Mena as I cruised down Arkansas Highway 8. Most likely speeding, I'm sure.
[I don't do that anymore. I was told by a person we all know and love to "Slow down. People love you."]
Anyway, I did the Masters' thing at University of Northern Colorado in one year. I went to school, went to work, slept, and that's all I remember doing for nine months. But that was worth it for sure. It landed me a good college job that I still enjoy. And I didn't even have to quit or go adjunct to start working on the PhD.
Starting sometime in '04, I started looking at doctoral programs. Finally, in the summer of '07, I applied to Boston University, which at that time had the only DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) Program offered exclusively online.
They ditched me. Here's the letter:
(Looks like a cat peed on it.)
IMHO: They saw Southern school (HSU's BME), and Western (Division 1A) School (UNC's MME), turned up their proverbial Yankee noses and thought, "Hick."
Next, I found a doctoral degree - I think it was a PhD - in Creative Writing from the University of Louisiana Lafayette. The dissertation was to write a novel. (Hmmm....basically had one of those in the can!) It was offered totally online so I called about it. Dr. So-n-so Snobby-Ass said, "Well, this isn't for people who can already do hands-on workshop type stuff." Or something like that. He talked about a woman with a Masters in Creative Writing who was turned down because she just didn't have the right kind of background. Maybe I didn't understand what they were wanting as a student, which really shouldn't have mattered too much: If someone already had a Masters...(I mean, Creative Writing? How different can theory be versus applied use? How....I digress).
Basically the guy was just a dick. He didn't do much for recruitment, I'll tell ya that. I think I actually went back and filled out a survey on ULL's website about "How was your experience?"
The word "shitty" wasn't an option.
I kept looking. Sunni, aka Dr. Davis, turned me on to Northcentral University. So....I went there. I don't remember the person I spoke to first, but I chose the PhD in Education degree program with the emphasis in E-Learning and Online Teaching, or whatever it was called at the time. (It changed to E-Learning and Teaching Online. I don't know why reversing the word order makes it different, but that's higher ed for you. Upon further research, now it's just E-learning. Good grief.)
The lady I originally spoke to knew people from Cove, so I thought that was a good sign. Maybe.... My advisor was a very nice lady named Mary Okada. Since I didn't have to have the GRE and all my other stuff looked good, I got all my paperwork in for my VA money, got a big loan with my tuition rate locked in, and started my first class, Philosophy of Education on August 1, 2008. My mentor was Dr. Barbara Gerard. At first I thought she looked like a drag queen, but online pics are many times not very flattering. She was extremely pleasant and the first months went by without too much fanfare. I didn't even have to buy books, because Sunni already had them and was kind enough to loan them to me.
Philosophy. Plato. Aristotle. That goofy English guy with the "let kids run wild" school.
Riveting.
Since six hours is considered full-time according to VA Education Benefits Standards, I started two more 12 week courses in September '08. So I actually had three that overlapped at once. This was not an issue time-wise really. We'd since moved to the loft in downtown Texarkana, and I was, in Fall 2008, staying at the old Garth Vader Studio on 3rd Street in DeQueen. I had plenty of time to work. When I wasn't, I was watching old episodes of Dark Shadows on DVD and reading Liz Taylor bios. In order to keep my sanity, I decided I'd always read a "fluffy" book before going to bed every night. I usually read one of those cheesy paperback Gothics that came out in the 70s.
Much like this one:
(I became of huge fan of Phyllis A. Whitney, Victoria Holt, and Jane Aiken Hodge during this time. I read Jane Eyre finally. Women getting forced into marriages with mysterious men who lived in big scary mansions were a great inspiration to me.)
And this is how it all started. Interestingly enough.
In mid-November of '08: Lilly's Pad, (now Stillwell's), located in the front of the building where the studio used to be, caught fire one night. I escaped with the help of Renegade Ted (the Cat, not the Guitar Player), who woke me by squealing at the top of his Siamese feline lungs around four in the morning. I gathered what I could, which included 4 cats (!!!!), and jumped into the car. (That blog could once be found on MySpace. Now's it a "note" on Facebook. And it's become hard to find those things...).
After all that, and Thanksgiving, I needed a new place to hole up in DeQueen. I was teaching in Nashville on Monday nights in Spring of '09 and still had to be at the DeQueen campus during the week. For that semester I rented a room at Barbara Reid's house out on Dogtown Road. I had my own bathroom, kitchen and laundry privileges, and could stay up and watch TV if I wanted. No Internet, though, and the cell phone (complete with QWERTY keyboard!) I finally bought that February would barely work outside of Texarkana. (This was before MetroPCS started extending its areas.) Barbara liked having me there because Sonny, her husband, worked the night shift at Cooper Tire and was gone most of the time. I enjoyed staying there. I was able to ride my bike on occasion and it was quiet and I was able to get my work done. It was in my room there that I finally came up with the idea for my dissertation topic: Information overload, and I narrowed it down to its effect on nontraditional students. Because many of them are unfamiliar with newer technology, have different perceptions and responsibilities regarding continuing education, so...there it was.
It was here that I moved from black and white episodes of Dark Shadows to the color episodes (there's a blog about that somewhere....). This was the same period of time the big tornado practically wiped out my hometown. (Blog on that, too.)
When the semester began to draw to a close, which was in the middle of an NCU 12-week term, I realized that I needed to move on. Staying with the Reids was nice, but I always felt like I was in the way somewhat. And I needed my own "tech" access. (This was LONG before smart phone and tablets had unlimited data. How tech has changed just in so short a time.) So, the week I left the Reids I went searching for a cheap rental in DeQueen. I first called about a place out near the dump (yay). One morning I drove through Horatio, stopped at EZ Mart and picked up either a DQ Bee or a Thrifty Nickel, then drove out to see "The Shack."
Oh, hell no. I wasn't staying there.
In whatever newspaper I bought, I found a number for someone renting a one-bedroom house. That afternoon I drove out on Red Bridge Road and was introduced to "The Hut."
Perfect. I'll take it. Here's $100 to hold it through the summer and I'll move in in August.
I had just started one of the toughest classes I knew I had to take: Statistics. And one other on...something. (I'll have to review my transcript.) I took 3 cats with me: Renegade Ted, Anakin, and Bug, The Old Man.
I would usually leave out Sunday night and come home Thursday night, so I'd at band rehearsal at the Dowd Building. (Groovetones were still going pretty strong then.) I scheduled Friday morning office hours in Ashdown. At that point my in-class Spanish class was scheduled as a hybrid so I only had to go to Nashville on Mondays.
At The Hut I had a landline, Internet, and DISH Network. Dale Qualls, former Groovetone guitarist, installed the dish for me. I had everything I needed. It was not too far out in the sticks, it was quiet, and work was only 5 miles away. Again, I was able to work. By the end of 2010, over a year later, I had finished my Concept Paper, which is essentially the "condensed" version of the first three chapters of my dissertation. And that left me just one more year to finish my degree.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!!!
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