Far be it from me to be content with something for too long....

I'm in the process of changing my thesis topic. I've been reading and diving into this survey and it all came right down to the fact that I wasn't excited about my topic - it wasn't ever what I wanted to do, it was just something similar...but not similar enough to make me happy. Really, the more I do this thing (sociology) the more frustrated I become. As my advisor repeated to me today "Sociologists really aren't in the business of studying meaning and cognition." (Well, some aren't anyway). It just so happens that those in my department that study men and fatherhood aren't in that sociology business. They're in the "what statistics, surveys and demographics tell us" business. Not to downgrade that in any way, because I think there is a place for that type of work, it's just not what I want because it's not adequate to answer the questions I have about the world.

I talked to my advisor today for over an hour...and I always feel so bad when I do that. But, he's totally fine with the fact that I want to change my topic. When I told him, he said, "Sure! It happens." So, we worked with me for a long time on really nailing down what my research question is and coming up with better ways to narrow that down into a thesis project. So...Onward and upward.

In other news, I've just been in a "general funk" these days as my 25th birthday rapidly approaches. I don't know why, but it freaks me out. I always anticipated that by the time I was 25 I would feel much more like an adult than I actually do right now. I don't think I will feel like an adult until my life is no longer transitory, I don't measure time in semesters, and I have more important things to obsess about than how cute my cat is. I guess in concrete terms that means: until I live in a house that I own, until I have an actual job (maybe an academic one...but no more of this student crap) and until I have a family. So, I approach 25 feeling about the same as I did at 20, except now I live with a man who is my husband (which is sort of adult-ish, right???)