not finishing

While working on my PhD, I hired an artist on oDesk to create this comic. It was based on a sketch of my own which I can't seem to find.

The idea of the comic is a feeling I had, about the race I was running. I was close to finishing my PhD, but I was seriously considering quitting. It seemed like my goals had shifted since starting the program, and I felt like I would be perfectly satisfied to trek out on a new path.

I was dissatisfied with the version above, since the middle frame didn't convey the notion of being distracted by thought, so I hired another person to do the comic.

I'm not sure I like this one either. The middle frame is better -- he is definitely distracted -- but it seems like he's distracted by someone or something off to the side, rather than being distracted by an idea.

I remembered this comic just now while listening to Lana Del Rey's Born To Die "Feet don't fail me now / Take me to the finish line." It turns out that I did finish my PhD, but I still wrestle with whether I should finish some of the races I start. For instance, this whole post is a distraction from a little TurkPad utility I'm writing, and may not finish...