The start, not end, of the journey!

When individuals who have earned a PhD or EdD indicate their level of education on every piece of correspondence possible and / or have to include this tiny little fact in verbal communication as well, I feel like they saying to anybody who will listen that they have achieved greatness. It's possible. However, as I come closer to the end of my own PhD, I feel deep frustration that I see so much more out there that I cannot possibly understand in my lifetime. The degree holders can only claim a very deep knowledge of a very small vertical slice within a specific discipline. For example, as I earn a PhD in Education, I can babble on forever about adult learning needs, specifically for the online platform. Can I talk to you about educational technology? Only from what I read on the aside.... Can I talk to you about K-12 needs? Only from what my peers in college specialise in K-12 talk about... Can I talk to you about institutional effectiveness and assessment? Only from what I've experienced in the workplace as it touches my own area of expertise... My point being, there is SO MUCH about education that I can't claim expertise about, but essentially will be writing a book about my area of expertise, and already have written three 120 page theses about it. This isn't even bringing in different disciplines, but merely staying with the single discipline of education (although I feel it's essential that we become more interdisciplinary in our approaches).

As I see people create email addresses such as "doctorjohndoe" or "JohnDoePHD" or drjohn", I seriously wonder about their capability of seeing the world on a bigger scale than their own self-created bubble. Other times I see facilitators tell students to "call me Dr. Joe" or whatever. My thoughts are if you really want to "connect" with your students by being a peer in leadership form (as adult faculty should be), the reference to masses of hours focusing on a super small area of expertise is not the way to do it.

Granted, getting a post-graduate degree is much more than whatever focus you chose. The rigor and structure I have learned to extrapolate data for positive application, run valid studies, and become a change agent on a systemic level is all credited to my experiences with learning post-graduate level research and the mindset instilled by my university, Walden. However, as I look at what's left...two more theses, two more short residencies, and dissertation, I feel incredibly inadequate than before I started the program three years ago. While my focus is very strong on my particular vertical slice right now, I am very excited about graduating, taking a long holiday in Africa, and then coming back to delve into other vertical slices, cross communities with interdisciplinary studies, and discovery boundary objects that I can use for multiple communities to experience the discoveries that a particular discipline has experienced.

My fellow doctoral candidates and graduates, this is not the end. Don't walk away saying "phew, life goal complete". We are merely getting the star chart for discovering galaxies. We don't need to brag, remind, or fulfill minor insecurities with our status of past accomplishment by putting PhD and EdD on everything (putting aside the fact that it's necessary for some things, such as publications and vitas).

Meanwhile, to everybody who knows me...if I pull that "look at my three letters" stunt after I graduate and the celebration party, kick me really hard.