And that, as that they say, is that

After these many years, here I am, Mistress of Fill in the Blank. Written thesis: Pass. Presentation of thesis: Pass. Oral defence of thesis: Pass.

There were moments during the defence where I was tempted to dive out the door I was standing next to and make a run for it, but in the end all was well. One of the sweetest members of my committee turned out to be a total hardass when question time came around, basically questioning my central thesis. This and the next few questions were when the open door really started to look attractive. But I stuck it out, sweated a lot and managed to answer a barrage of questions that I really hadn't anticipated. I also managed to use the word "naughty" in my defence, which made my advisor chuckle and seemed to entertain the audience.

When I was called back in after the short deliberation, I got lots of wonderful feedback. My committee stressed how much they enjoyed reading the thesis and how completely original it was ("which is the highest complement we can give a fellow academic", the chair said). They also praised the writing, and encouraged me to see it as the basis for a dissertation or as a published work. My sweet advisor said that it was a very special day for me, but also for her, because she first met me as an undergrad in one of her classes many years ago. To see me now, at the successful end of my MA program, was a real treat.

The day itself was absolutely beautiful, and the audience and my advisor ended up at the bar for a celebration drink. The pub we went to has a 'free drink for successful defence' policy. I was just going to go for a summery patio drink like a g&t, but was informed that I could have my pick of anything in the bar. I promptly headed over to the top shelf to look at the whisky. Of course, there were the standby Glenfiddich and Glenlivet. A Tallisker sat in the back row, tempting. And then I saw it: Lagavulin, just off to the side and waiting to be noticed. So we sat out in the shade, sipping Lagavulin (Rebus' top shelf pick, a smooth peat and smoke whisky from Islay) and chatting. Then off to dinner at a great little vegetarian restaurant. I'd been up since 5am and my nerves had gone through the wringer, so we decided to head home afterwards. We sat on the porch with the cat and then settled in to watch Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes in The Second Stain. Bed by 10 and straight into the sound sleep of the wicked.

I'll probably never stand at a podium to pick up an award, so this'll have to do as the closest thing to an acceptance speech: A major thank you to everyone, since getting this thesis off the ground was more a collaborative project than an individual one! A: for tech and research support (as well as many, many dinners), M&S for research funds when the uni gave me the cold funding shoulder and many, many years of support, JP for enabling European research, JW for tolerating the state of the office perpetually and for everything else, the P sisters (PG and Khartoum branches) for encouragement, defence fashion tips and grad school commiseration, JC for everyday phone contact to preserve sanity and for dragging a very stressed grad student out to yoga when most needed. The Beast for being angry, entertaining and cuddly in equal measure. The rest of the fam and friends not mentioned here for not asking me about my thesis too much, but still acting interested when I talked about it at length. ;)

Love to you all,
grad student hack, MA