Introduction
I am both protagonist and hero of this story. My part is simple. I walk. I walk, step by step through the labyrinth of PhD courses, tasks, explorations, and culminates at this centre point of the process. This story is a quest and I am the seeker. I am in pursuit of knowledge, academic skills, scholarly competencies, and changes in thought. This story is without ending as there are many chapters yet to come. While I walk alone, there are others who influence and intersect along my path.
This narrative is framed by my journeys before this story began. This prequel is shared in order to understand and ground this PhD story. I am a life-long teacher and educator who has been in the profession long enough to see significant change over time. I am a daughter of immigrant parents who escaped post war Europe to find new opportunities to farm and raise a family in Canada. I am a first generation post secondary attender and the first in my extended family to begin a PhD. I am an avid reader and technology user which stems from a background of tinkering and exploring. I am creative, willing to try new things, and reflective, which leads me to use both high tech and low tech ways of expressing, communicating, and storytelling. I am open by nature with an introvert's personality which leads me to live in paradox. My dual roles as wife and mother influence and support my research journey. and still amazed that I have these gifts of relationship to support me in this journey. Consider these pre-storied elements as you read my PhD story.