Thesis defence reflection

My thesis defence went really really well. My presentation was good, I didn't have a shaky voice (which is impossible to control) and I managed to choke down some lettuce and a cherry tomato in the morning so I wouldn't get a rumbly tummy. I shouldn't have worried, even though I ate dinner, my appetite isn't back yet and I'm trying to want lunch.

My defence was 1.5 hours long, which is very short. More common are 2 and 2.5 hour long defences. My questions were pretty easy. I never felt totally stumped except with one question, and even then another person on the panel jumped in and said it didn't make sense, so I was saved.

It feels very anti-climactic. It felt like my thesis was so overdrawn that I just don't care to think about it. I don't feel excited to be done, just free to finally move on. This is a fine! I still have some minor revisions which should be done within a week, easily. So, everything is just fine. It feels a lot like when I went on exchange in Scotland and everyone kept telling me that it was going to be the best time of my life, and then I found myself doing laundry, going to the store, attending class...I had a wicked time, but not every day all the time. It was fine to be there too.

I think of it like climbing a mountain. You celebrate getting to the top. But if you climb three mountains in a row, you stop celebrating the peaks because you just want to get to the frigging village on the other side. Happy it's done, proud of my work, not feeling the need to drag it out.

On that note...

It feels funny to be back in Waterloo! It feels normal. We haven't really been away for that long, it just felt like it. We've hit up, or will hit up most of our old haunts. We went to Kismet for Pakistani food, Rob went past our old place, I'm going to the Lotus Tea House and Symposium. We're planning on Angie's diner for breakfast on Saturday before we head home. I came back to the school. Same old same old, really! We like these places, but not more than their counterparts anywhere else. We liked Lotus' awesome cheap food and tea, but any Lotus type place would be fine, it doesn't have to be Waterloo's. I don't regret leaving here. It was nice while we were here, but it's not our home anymore.

We really, really want to go to Whitehorse. Just putting that out to the universe. Again and again. What's that book "the Secret"? I think you're supposed to say what you want and repeat it or something, and it'll happen? If anyone has read that book and wants to tell me how to use The Secret, I'd love it. I've abandoned common sense and must now prepare for a crushing defeat if I don't get the job. It's not in me to pretend I don't care. Hey Universe! I care!

And that's my story. At this point I am officially avoiding doing my revisions. So, time to suck it up.

Later gators!