Comps

I passed! Wooo! So now both my written and oral comprehensive exams are over and done with. This has made me realize that I’m actually going to graduate from this program. This has simultaneously made extremely happy and sad. Happy, for obvious reasons — I’ve been in school for way too long. Sad for sort of weird reasons. Am I actually going to be able to handle myself in a post doc and/or job? Does this mean that I’m officially getting old? What the hell do I even want to do with this degree when I’m finally out of here? A million questions that I guess I’ve been pushing off because attempting to think too much about the future made my time here feel even longer. So maybe I’ll graduate next spring. Holy shit, next spring? That’s going to come up so quickly!

Apart from dealing with what feels like an unexpected crisis, Greg and I adopted a puppy. We named her Lucy, she’s adorable and fluffy. The shelter told us she was a lab/husky mix. She’s only about 2 months old at this point, and it’s almost like what I’d imagine having a baby would be like. Well, a few steps down from that, but we haven’t been sleeping well and I managed to go to the mall with poop on my shirt over the weekend.

I gave my first "international" talk! I won a travel award to go to Puerto Rico to present my research to a conference we go to every couple of years. The talk actually went pretty well, and my mentor took the obligatory awkward picture while I was up there. She’s sort of weird and I never know where I stand with her. At least she was happy with how the talk went, and more recently how I did during my oral comps. ues

I guess I should stop procrastinating and finish my stats project. And start writing up my response to reviewers. And analyze data. Bleh.

But there’s light at the end of the tunnel!