It’s Thursday and normally my fortnightly blog post is published at this stage but as the post title says, it’s been a funny old week. Not funny in the ha-ha sense and this post aims to explain my thinking about where I’m at right now and where I’m going (in the direction of a PhD of course!).
I have learned so many things from a multitude of resources and people in the (exactly) fifteen months since I started writing this blog. I was introduced to MOOCs, OER resources, (academic) Twitter and tweetchats, virtual conferences and bullet journalling to mention the most frequently used and beneficial resources. I completed coursework that will provide me with a postgrad certificate in Digital Education, participated in a summer school for academic writing and have accepted a place to study on a doctoral programme starting next January. As such, what originally started as a semi-retirement project has given me a new focus and confirmed that I love teaching and reading and the time to start getting to grips with academic writing and research.
So, when I happened across this tweet a week ago today it stopped me in my tracks. 
I was about to embark on a course of study that I had been preparing for all summer and really enjoying what I was reading. For some unexpected reason as the course was about to commence I didn’t feel passionate about and if I’m truthful, not even lukewarm. I considered the options over the next couple of days and concluded that I would be better off not taking the course this semester and instead focus on preparing for the PhD studies. Goodness knows it makes sense to get a head start since come January 2019 the next four years (hopefully not longer than four) will be busy ones with ups and downs that go along with such a level of research and study.
So, pathwaytophd will take a sabbatical from scheduled blog posts for the remainder of 2018, although unscheduled posts may pop up from time to time as topics of interest are considered worth sharing.
Until next time,
Sandra
Featured image courtesy of Pixabay
Sandra Flynn 