Bill Kidwell

Perhaps blogs still have a purpose today, and perhaps they do not. Only time will tell. My purpose in setting this site is to begin writing again, and to share some things I learn with others.

How did it come to this?

My career has been a long, busy road. As soon as I started my professional life I also started taking graduate courses. I had promised myself when I was working on my B.S. that if I still enjoyed school when I finished, I would look at graduate school.

I considered going straight to grad school, but the payoff was just not there. A Master’s degree didn’t earn you much more without experience. So, I decided my best course was to work on it part time. I started working on my Master’s degree, but later switched to work on my Ph.D.

I had a number of setbacks and breaks along the way. We moved, I changed jobs, there were family situations, etc… Getting your Ph.D. is difficult. Getting it while working full time is very difficult. But persistence pays off, and here I am.

Once you finish a journey like that, it is a huge relief, and generally a good time to take a break. When I was in school, I was generally busy with coursework, conducting research, or otherwise occupied. I tried to start up blogs several times in that period, but it was difficult to keep a rhythm. After all, you are trying to contribute something to the research community. That is pretty significant, and when that is your goal, it overshadows options like blogging — or at least it did for me.

Now what?

Now the break has ended. I am in a good rhythm with work, the family, and ready to start writing and sharing. Hopefully it proves useful to someone out there.

Photo by João Silas on Unsplash