Thesis Defended!

I successfully defended my thesis! It feels amazing. That deadline has been looming over my head for two and a half years now. The defense went better than I could have dreamed. My graduate friends made a huge effort to come support me. Many of them had a class at 9 (the time of my defense), but they all got together and re-scheduled their class at 8, so they could come see me defend. It was so awesome! My mom and dad were there, even Cassidee came. She actually had to watch my presentation twice because she came early enough to see me practice. (She said it wasn’t as boring the second time…). And Adam has been telling me he is proud of me ever since. Thanks babe!

I think that it took my entire family to write my thesis. ShaLae and Cassidee helped me with my database. Mom did more than four revisions (she informed me after the reading my last post) of my thesis. Dad prayed every night that I would finish. (I’m not entirely sure what that ment…). Adam picked up all of the loose ends, and helped me with so much math, and made sure I had an office to work in, and talked me out of giving up on the thesis, etc. etc. etc.

The defense went great. They asked me two questions that I had a hard time answering, but overall I felt confident.

In the end, both of my committee members told me that I had done a fantastic job, and they were proud of me. I love getting feedback like that! I still have a few minor changes I need to make before I submit my thesis to the dean, but all of the hard part is behind me now. Yes! I feel so joyful! Now all I have to worry about is packing for our cruise. I’m so excited. We leave in 4 days. I promise, next post I will have more pictures. Of us. In Italy.