I won't be finishing my PhD.
I gambled and lost.
I went to UTSA knowing they were only going to provide funding until I completed my coursework. The gamble was that I hoped I could get additional funding when it was clear I had stellar grades, knew what I was doing, and had a slam dunk dissertation already worked out.
They didn't care.
So, I had to find a job after my dissertation proposal defense or be out on the street. And I discovered that with my ADHD and working a regular 40 hour a week job in front of a computer leaves me exhausted and too burned out to do much of anything else.
I thought I could chip away at the dissertation after I somehow managed to get a Wenner-Gren grant and do my fieldwork in 2024. But I don't get paid enough to continue to pay for tuition and Trump's Department of Education put a restriction on financial aid for repeat credits including dissertation writing credits. UTSA is still unwilling to provide support so I can work less and finish the dissertation.
I no longer have access to university resources or software anymore after going on a leave of absence last fall. My advisor has not contacted me since I went on the leave of absence last fall despite a promise of regular updates. I have no family close by. My only friends are the ones I made at work. I am, quite simply, not in a situation to allow me to succeed.
It isn't official yet, but my department said that if I don't register for credits in the fall they will drop me from the program.
I thought you all should know, especially the ones that have been with me since I started this blog all those years ago.
