Happy Anniversary!!

Today is a special day, an anniversary if you will. Exactly one year ago I had my thesis defense at the lovely Brigham Young University. This post is in memory of that day.

I scheduled my defense for 10:00 am because I didn't want to spend the entire day agonizing over what was about to happen. For those of you who may not know, I am one who agonizes. So, I rose early that morning and had some kind of breakfast and put on my cutest maternity top and black pants. I was VERY pregnant at this time, so it was difficult to feel really attractive, but I did my best. I find that when I look good, I feel much more confident. Go figure. Tim gave me a blessing that morning and I did a little freshening up on Burke (he was a theorist I used in my thesis and I was really freaked that one of my committee members was going to ask me some questions about him that I wouldn't be able to answer).

At around 9:30 we headed for campus. Tim dropped me off and I was met quite unexpectedly by a good friend from high school, Miss Suzette. It was an answer to prayers. She is one of the most soothing and kind people I know, and she walked me over to the lovely new Humanities building and by the time we said our goodbyes, I felt much more calm. I headed up to the scheduled conference room and was met by Ed (my chair) who gave me some more words of comfort. Sidenote: I am positive that I had the best chair in the world. He is now the chair of the dept. Wonderful man. Anyway, we talked for a bit while we waited for the others to show up and next came Leslee and then Greg (he is now the associate dean of the college--boy do I know how to pick'em or what?)

We opened with prayer and then they asked me about my experience in the graduate program and what led me to my thesis topic (Refusing to be Silenced: Fanny Fern's "Female Woman" in Nineteenth-Century America). I was then asked to leave while they discussed me and when I came back in we began the actual defense. Yes, it was scary, and yes, there were moments of "Holy cow, I don't really know how to answer that question!" But there was also this really cool feeling of, "Wow, these people really care about what I have to say, and they are actually interested in my research!" At the end, I was asked to leave again (uggghhh) and when I returned I was greeted with smiles of congratulations and compliments. I passed. Wonderful!

I celebrated the event by going to lunch with Sally (whose defense took place at the same time) Mark, and Breanne (fellow grad friends). We dined at Mimi's Cafe. My mom and Tim got me flowers. In the end, what began as a terribly scary day ended on quite the high note. Happy Thesis Anniversary!!

If any of you would like to celebrate this day, my thesis can be found in the school library. I think my mom may have a copy too. Enjoy!