I defended my thesis today. The defense went really well. The conversation afterward was awesome. We really had some good ideas bouncing around.

Then I had to leave for a bit while they talked about what they want to have happen with the thesis. Then I was asked back in.

The gist of it is that I’m not quite done. I was told to take a few months to do some fixes that they want done. The idea is that we want to make a really great piece of work that will be the foundation for a dissertation. The consideration is that I will be using this work for conferences, journal submissions, and my doctoral work.

This is all good stuff. I know that they care about my work and about how I look to the programs and colleagues who see my work.

It’s also exhausting. I was hoping to be nearly done (within the next few weeks). I’m tired. I need a break before I dig into a doctorate.

I know, though, that this is going to be a piece of work that I’m so proud of when I walk out of the program. I know that it will open doors for me. I know that these three professors have my best interests at heart.

Some really phenomenal things came out of today. My adviser told me that she met one of the program chairs at one of the campuses I visited this year. She said that the chair had nothing but good things to say about me and that she really wanted me at her school. That made me feel good.

The committee told me that they think this is really cutting edge research and they are interested to see where it goes. I wasn’t sure if it really was cutting edge. I was starting to feel like I was status quo and it was relatively boring. Not so, says my committee.