The day Dottie left graduate school was the day she learned to drive a truck -- a 15-foot U'Haul carrier with the Statue of Liberty and the words "New York City" emblazened on its side. Dottie was leaving the academic life she had grown to love and hate for the past 6 years.

She didn't have a job. She didn't have a PhD, as she had always thought she would by the time she left Universitytown. Instead, she had an accepted disseration proposal, eighteen cartons of books, a fish, supportive parents, and a tiny apartment waiting for her in New York City.

A year of High Drama had preceded Dottie's decision to pack the truck and Head Outa Dodge. She had worried that she would never find a career as intellectually satisfying as The Academic One. That her advisor would be crushed. That her parents would be mortally wounded. Or, worse, that she would wallow forever in a no-man's land of indecision. Unable to complete the dissertation yet equally unable to cut her losses and move on, Dottie seemed destined to linger forever in that abject, identity-less grey zone known as ABD.

Until, that is, she made the decision to leave town. When she did, her friends rallied around her. She told her advisor she was taking a leave. The sky didn't fall, her advisor was incredibly nice, and her fish still loved her.

Ready to face the unknown, Dottie climbed into the truck and headed east.

Tune in as Dottie drives to New York City. . . .