Academic Life and Motherhood: A Skillful Balancing Act

Abstract

When I began my doctoral studies in the fall of 2002, I found myself engaged in a difficult balancing act. If two children under the age of six, a husband, a part-time job, and aging parents were not enough to manage, adding serious graduate work to this already heavy load seemed impossible to handle. Initially, I was unsteady – losing my footing and balance on the thin beam upon which I walked each day. Around the same time, I also came across an aphorism that encouraged slow but steady work towards the realization of a goal. It read something like this: Plant one flower a year and in ten years you shall have a beautiful garden. I decided to make this one of my mantras. And so, I began to work slowly but consistently towards my doctorate, taking two or three courses per academic year (or planting a couple of flowers at a time).