Friends, Romans, Countrymen, let me graduate!

It's about time. Getting the flu had an impressive impact on me. As I laid in bed for those few days, I had a lot of time to think. (Turns out that watching Matthew McConaughey find a civil war ship in the Saharan Desert doesn't take too many firings of the old neurons.) I thought to myself, how long is this going to drag out. June? July? August? September? What am I am waiting for? For this dissertation to magically write itself? Okay, probably . . . but if science has taught me anything, it's this: "Tenacity doesn't always lead to success, but it's the only thing that will." -William H. Foege. Therefore, it's time to just set the deadline (have thesis in hands of reading committee on April 15) and end this merry-go-round. So today, after a week of emails to five extremely busy but willing professors, I've set my defense date and booked Pelton Auditorium for June 3rd at 11 AM. Hurray! Was getting a PhD a total waste of the past six years? Absolutely. Will it prove to be, in the seventy years ahead, one of the best decisions I've made? Probably. If that line of reasoning doesn't make sense, don't worry, writing a thesis apparently makes everyone crazy . . . but it goes away after the defense. Or so I'm hoping.