commencement

I finally got around to buttoning up the last bits of my master's thesis. I defended it almost 2 years ago, which was the major part of the work - a 2 hour presentation plus a couple more hours of questions and discussion from professors in the department. This was definitely the climactic and stressful end to my program.

I have been "done" this whole time except for a few last hurdles - gathering forms and signatures, making some small edits, formatting, etc. It ended up being quite frustrating, which was what I expected and why I have been putting it off for so long - the department misplaced my paperwork, I collected signatures again, but someone missed the main spot to sign and then left town with no computer or cell phone access. Then I got additional small feedback the day I was submitting, preventing me from hitting the first deadline. Ugh! BUT - its finally wrapped up (minus one signature that the grad department took on tracking down). I submitted a final copy of all 180 pages of original research.

After all this, I decided to walk in commencement this weekend to really help it feel final after all this time:

Lined up to walk



The only actual picture of my masters "hood"



Sea of graduates - it was a beautiful day

My committee showed up and brought cards and flowers - it was really sweet

2 out of 3 of my thesis committee - Dr. P in the middle and Priya Kapoor on the right. Kapoor was the "chair" and professor I was by far the closest to throughout my program.

We had a couple glasses of champagne when we got home, and headed to a bbq at Josh and Michelle's to celebreate 1 year of Sydney's adoption being final. It was a really nice day : )