I'd Like to Introduce You to Me

I know many of you already know, either through facebook or through my sister's blog, but I passed my dissertation defense on Monday. So one day I'm just a lowly grad student, and the next I'm still a lowly grad student, but one who will have a title for the rest of my life. I am now Karen Merrell PhD!

I had some great support. My mom and Audrey drove up from St. George, Connie drove up from Cedar City, Aunt Janis drove down from Pleasant Grove, and Brian flew up from LA to hear the public presentation part of my defense. They were very attentive, and impressed my professors with the great questions they asked me. After my presentation, they kicked everyone out except for my committee and asked me questions for an hour. I was a little nervous about this part, since I had no idea what to expect, but it went over pretty well. There were a few questions I didn't know the answer to, the answer to one of them should have been obvious to me but wasn't, but I knew everything else they were asking me. For the most part, I even knew why they were asking me them.

Well, then they kicked me out, deliberated for five minutes or so and then called me back in and congratulated me. And then handed me back the huge stack of corrected dissertations. And now I have to go back and correct them, tweak the format so they can be submitted to the library electronically, and then I make 6 or 7 copies on fancy scmancy paper, and then submit them to be bound and whatever else they do with them.

Well, that's my story. Kind of crazy! It hasn't sunk in yet, I think. But it does feel great to be done. I feel more relaxed than I've been in months!