You know how I mentioned I was considering which program to do next year under the continued funding of the Rhodes scholarship? Well, time has passed, May has rolled around, and I've had time to mull it over -- as well as talk endlessly to friends and family about the pros and cons of this decision, so if you're one of those people and if you are currently reading this, thank you for your attention and support and patience!
Though I think the master's programs in education and history would have been exciting for me in different ways, I've decided to do the D.Phil in English starting this fall. (Alas, if only it were possible to be a career dabbler in different areas of the academic world, doing one degree after another indefinitely! Yes, potential career student right here.) The D.Phil, again, is Oxford's equivalent of a Ph.D., and will take around three more years in the UK. The program is very centered around independent work and research, and will be more unstructured than what I am currently doing for my M.St., but the fun part will be getting to spend a few years reading and writing about topics that are interesting to me, while covered by scholarship and living abroad at that. I'm excited to be working with my supervisor and staying in the department here, and am of course excited to be staying in Oxford. It's such a different place for me than Stanford ever was -- so different that the two can be difficult to compare, but I'm looking forward to exploring more of this strange new land in the next few years. It also feels jarring for me to think that I will be one of the very first members of my entire extended family to get a doctorate, something that I want for myself the more I spend time thinking about it. This is a big step indeed, even if I know it'll bring its share of fresh challenges and life lessons.
Enough on that for now. You American friends and readers of this blog, you'd better come visit! A couch and a cup of tea always await you here in Oxford.
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