It increasingly looks as though we will be remaining in Louisville after all, and that I will continue on through the PhD program. This has been a crazy week of grappline with significant issues and questions about the direction of our life. As the week draws to a close, I’m simply letting the decision simmer for a couple days, trying it on to make sure it is correct.
A key factor in the whole process has been shifting from a short term to a longer term perspective on things. Instead of looking at next year, we began asking questions about what we envisioned our lives looking like in 10 or 20 years. In that light, the 3-4 years more of the rigorous PhD life would open the doors to a few decades of something we think we’d like. The idea of being a part of a campus community somewhere, living on the academic calendar, being around students, etc. is something we find desirable… much more so than being in the business world. The business is world is great, I’m not denigrating it; I just think this is a better fit for us. It also gives me a better platform for writing, speaking, etc. in the future, things which I am interested in doing.
The bottom line is that this decision really seems to have come from God. When we really got down to laying everything on the table in a completely open manner, this is not the direction I thought we were heading. But in doing so, this soon emerged as His will for our lives, so we can press forward with more confidence that this is where we are supposed to be. It will definitely be very difficult and challenging, and there will be plenty of sacrifices, but there will be plenty of good things also both now and in the future.