EEEEEEEE! I DID IT I DID IT I DID!
[later edit: OK, this was supposed to go up on September 16th… but apparently I was so excited that I forgot to hit the Publish button! So here it is — better late than never, I guess! ;) ]
I’m a doctor! I can hardly believe it! Holy smokes, I just about sailed through my oral defense — with flying colors! I am SO SO SO EXCITED!!
I’m also proud of myself for taking the time to write, read aloud, wince at how much time that took and then rewrite, read and reflect and then rewrite again… over and over until I ended up with an oral defense presentation which came in perfectly at the time it was supposed to! Considering that the dissertation itself was technically supposed to be only 200 to 250 pages, but after tight editing, mine came in at 381 pages… I’m really pretty pleased with how my zoom-meeting oral defense presentation came out!
[Of course, that number of dissertation pages does not including the 65 pages of (mostly required) Abstract, Acknowledgements, Dedication, References, and Appendices — but it does include the required editing specification that all pages shall have 1″ borders for top and bottom… and a whopping 1 ½”borders on the left and right! As it turns out, that demand is due to ProQuest printing issues — as in, since you don’t want any of the writing cut off by being bound into the book’s spine, you have to assume an enormous border so nothing is lost.]
Other things that have me squeeee’ing with excitement now (though not in front of the camera!) — all three committee members approvingly mentioned my research excellence, my obvious passion for my subject, my speaking eloquence, and the clarity of my arguments! Further, they took less than five minutes to review privately about whether I’d fulfilled the oral defense requirements — nor did they say there was anything at all that I needed to develop more deeply — and they all strongly suggested I offer my dissertation for awards and that I should absolutely rewrite it into a book — because they all felt the research was important and should be widely spread!
*happysighhh* I am still SO THRILLED about this!!