Serendipity

At my conference today, someone asked me about my doctoral program. He seemed very eager to discover helpful strategies. I think he was poised to take notes.

Here is what I told him: I applied to ONE school for my PhD. After the deadline. Because my husband had decided to earn his PhD in Optics at the University of Central Florida, and I remember the moment, sitting on the playroom floor with my infant daughter, I decided I would like to earn a PhD, too, because why not?

I had never been to Florida. I had never even heard of UCF. But serendipity was on my side. UCF admitted students to my program in odd years - it just happened to be an odd year. I submitted my application after the deadline. UCF decided to take a chance on me. After I was admitted, I remember asking my former professor, “So, are you assigned research topics you are supposed to research??” As it turns out, research topics are purely self-generated, a fact known by everyone but me.

I thrived at UCF. I had amazing mentors and worked with amazing, world-renowned faculty. I also discovered they were the nicest people on the planet - and were supportive of me as a mom of a young child, and again when I was pregnant with my son. I had no inkling of how amazing these people were, on so many levels, when I decided to apply on a whim.

Here is what I did not do: I did not research schools. I did not study for the GMAT. I did not read accounting research articles. I did not have a detailed plan of what I wanted to study. Instead, I had a vague goal, held my breath, and jumped in.

Sometimes meticulously creating and following a plan is necessary. And sometimes, serendipity is enough.