Come again???

It would seem that I not only managed to survive my oral candidacy examination and proposal defense on my enzyme chimeras, but I also managed to pass. So now I am officially a Ph.D. candidate. I managed to get through perhaps the most difficult part of the hurdle in my Ph.D. program. Sometime soon, I hope to return back from my zombie like state.

I sincerely hope that it was my competency that allowed me to pass and not my incessant babbling. No joke. I cannot even describe the deluge of information that came spewing out of my mouth when asked a simple question.

The presentation I gave was 45 minutes. The question and answer session was about 1.25 hours long. The members deliberated for about 20 minutes before calling me back into the room to annouce that they were going to pass me. So, the entire thing lasted about the neighborhood of 2.5 hours.

No amount of words can describe the exhaustion. The exhaustion I still feel...

But I am glad it is finally over. I am also enjoying the little "teasing" everyone is giving me by calling me the future "Dr. Katie".

So, now the final leg in the race begins to finish. Perhaps graduate in about a year. A doctorate degree will indeed mean a great deal to me. It makes me just teary thinking about it.

But, I do not have much time to rest on my laurels. I have just been told I have to give another presentation here at the research institute next month.

Come again? I just got done giving one! Oh well, at least this one is not going to determine my life and future. A little less pressure at least.

(Enjoy the Catcow chimera)