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February 8, 2005
Written Prelim Nirvana
Yesterday, at approximately 2:15, I turned in my written preliminary exam to my department's DGS. I had no IDEA how exhilirating the feeling of accomplishment would truly be! It's done! It's over! It's the end of having to write a paper that has been designed exclusively to please someone else!
A friend of mine told me that after I turned the paper in, I would feel a combination of giddiness and exhaustion. To be honest, I didn't agree at the time. I was still feeling a little resentful of the whole process--after all, we had to write a 30 page paper that coherently addressed seven broad topics taken from our coursework. It's not a pretty paper: as my partner-in-academe says, "It's not the paper we would have written; it's the paper we had to write." So, there it is. Done. Turned in. And, yes, waves of giddiness and exhaustion.
We went out to celebrate last night. We figured that rather than drinks alone somewhere, we'd take J (our 3 1/2 year old) with us to somewhere he likes. After all, he's been stuck in this process with us. Not only has he decided that he wants to learn another language so our papers will be about him, but he watched the Aristocats movie at least a dozen times this weekend while we were glued to our laptops. Anyway, we went to the Good Earth, where J will eat a little of the cheese pizza along with some fruit and bread. It's his favorite restaurant, I think. We were there later in the evening, and it wasn't so busy. We told our server that we were celebrating our prelims, and she gave us free dessert! It was a really nice way to wind down from the whole process. We got home and crashed into an exhausted heap.
Now, to just pick up the momentum and get the orals done soon....
Posted by chri1010 at February 8, 2005 12:15 PM
Comments
Congratulations!
Posted by: Yvette at February 8, 2005 12:28 PM