Thesis Update

In April I was finally able to defend my thesis. This is what I had been dreading. It's really why it took me so long to finish. Just the thought of me standing before a highly educated committee being peppered with questions and having to think quick on my feet was enough to have my stomach in knots. I'm the kind of person who likes having time to prepare my answers. I like to think them over. It would have been nice if I had been provided with a list of questions they were going to ask. :) But each day I checked my email, and the list never came, lol. So I spent the two weeks leading up to my defense asking myself questions. Apparently I'm a good guesser because I was pretty prepared for all of the questions. There was only one question that I felt like I rambled a bit. I'm not sure the committee ever understood my answer. Maybe I didn't understand their question.

It was nice a day, and I enjoyed getting dressed up a bit. I got to go eat with the committee for lunch, and we went to a nice buffet close to the university. The food wasn't that great, but that's how buffets often are. After we finished up the afternoon it was time to get started on my corrections and publishing my book.

Boy! I really wasn't prepared for this process at all! No one gave me a flow chart of the process for publication, and I barely got it all done in time. Rusty and I had bought tickets to Bangkok for some R&R, but we had to let them go. I'm really grateful to all of the people at the university for helping me through the process. I had to make the changes suggested by the committee, turn it in for format checking by the university, make those corrections, re-submit for approval, then take the completed copy to the print shop who needed three days in order to make the cover. The print shop was really busy, and they really went above and beyond to help me get finished in time. Oh yea, I also had to get signatures from the committee, my advisor, the head of the department, and the dean at various times. Thankfully I was able to find a journal that would commit to publishing my thesis before the deadline as well. The deadline was 4:30 on May 17, and I turned everything in at 10:00 that morning. Yesterday (July 16) I went by and picked up my official transcript and the certificate saying I had completed all requirements. I should get my official diploma at graduation in November. I haven't been to a graduation ceremony since graduating from community college. I missed picking up my BA because we had moved, and I had finished my last three classes through correspondence. Maybe I'll make it to this one.