Monday, March 30, 2015

slow and steady

Judith, my landlady, just served me a Drambuie on the rocks.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t in celebration.

The viva lasted three hours today—three long but surprisingly enjoyable hours. The examiners pressed me hard on a number of my arguments, and my answers were not too shabby. Nevertheless, the result wasn’t what I had hoped it might be. Though my answers in the viva were all that one can expect for an oral exam, they felt the thesis itself is in need of some further work before it can be considered complete. Though my supervisor felt the thesis was in good shape, the examiners had other opinions. This was perfectly within the realm of possibilities, just not what I’d hoped for, nor what my supervisor expected. 

But, all is well. I already have a job, which in itself is quite the feat, and the PhD will get finished. I’ll just need to spend some additional months making that happen. The plus side is that I would have spent these months working on the thesis anyway, in preparing it for publication. Now  it will be closer to publication readiness and probably a whole lot sooner, as well.  I’m taking a bit of a detour before finishing, but slow and steady still wins the race, or at least still finishes the race. And that’s all I care about.

Thanks for all your prayers, love, and encouragement during this process. It is truly the most trying thing I’ve ever done. I’m disappointed that it will continue for a while longer, but will be glad to have a better final product in the end.

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