Balls to the Wall

First, let me start by explaining where I got the blog title: Balls to the Wall.

Just the other day, my PhD advisor (hereafter referred to either as advisor or The Man) called me into his office.  Thinking nothing of it, really, a long conversation ensued where he told me that he was a little disappointed in my progress.  He wanted to make sure that I could graduate in the near future and the way I was going, he wasn’t sure that I was going to make it that quickly.  He wanted me to pick up the pace and work harder.  He’s very tactful and well-spoken, but to me, all I could hear him saying was ‘Balls to the wall, DGS (desperate grad student, aka: Me), Balls to the wall’.

So I looked up exactly where the expression balls to the wall came from.  I was a little concerned that it referred to testicles.  Thankfully, it has NOTHING AT ALL to do with male anatomy.  The urban dictionary has a few definitions of it, but basically it refers to either fighter planes or old steam engines where, to get maximum acceleration, one would push the lever (balls) all the way forward (to the wall).  Now it commonly just means an all out effort.

So began my effort at going balls to the wall.

To be honest, I told him that I didn’t know exactly what it looked like to up my pace.  I’d been feeling pretty good at my progress, though slow it may be, and felt on the verge of a break through.  He reminded me that I had been ‘on the verge’ for a few years now. *blush*.  So, at least to begin, my new approach means working longer hours.  This is only day 2 of balls to the wall and yesterday I was here from 8:30am-6:45pm.  Today I will probably work the exact same hours.

So there you have it.  Balls to the wall.