Model of Doctoral Journey

I was asked to draw a graphic model depicting what I envision my doctoral journey to be today.
This is fuzzy but I'll "talk" you through it. I'm the little smiley-faced, starry-eyed cart rider in the lower left corner. I climbed a few "courses" of track (brilliant, eh?) to get to the top of the first big hill...Residency. Along the way I found the adjustment to balancing work, study, life to be a confusing and sometimes frustrating endeavor.

My residency facillitator was Dr. Ron Black. Neat guy, really loves teaching/learning and people; --a good mix for higher ed folks. You can see a bunch of other folks hopped in the little green cart. The stars are gone from the eyes, but we are smiling. I sense that this will be a peak moment and that the next few classes may feel like a high-speed drop from this happy place. Of course the purpose of the hill is to prepare us all for the loop-de-loop of dissertation study design, implementation, write-up and defense. It all sounds rather dizzing at this point; --hence the loop. I'm not entirely clear how the dissertation defense will work but feel pretty certain that their will be no need to look back at that point. Once my study idea and methods are approved I'll stick to the plan that I negotiate with my advisors; --I don't want to surpise them at defense and I certainly don't want them to surprise me with a negative evaluation of the effort. The final destination of this journey is in the party-room atop the Ivory Tower. I've dubbed that room the "Cap and Gown" club. I realize that when the party is over I'll probably be stationed a bit lower in the tower for a time, but that is another journey!