I finally finished writing my whole thesis and handed in the first draft. I now see the pieces of my puzzle coming together making a (hopefully) beautiful picture. Advisor said he liked my writing and thinks not much is left too. The plan is to hand in the complete thesis to the College of Graduate Studies in my university before the end of this month so that it will be sent for external judgment. This may take a few months so the earlier I send them the thesis the better. After that, a defense date will be scheduled, which I hope to be somewhere no later than May-June.
The second piece of good news is that my first paper ever got published. It's a review paper actually, adapted from my thesis introduction. It's published in a local medical journal, which my dad thinks is not something to make a big fuss about, but still he's happy and said he's looking forward to see my research published as well. Advisor and I signed a copy of the journal issue and gave it to my dad, who's a professor too, but in a totally different discipline.
One of my friends defended her thesis last week, becoming the first student in my class to defend and graduate. The next one is scheduled to defend next Tuesday. Just watching them giving their presentations fills my stomach with butterflies. Yikes! Better than thinking about the defense itself, I'm trying to direct my thoughts to the post-defense rituals and celebrations: who I'll invite to the presentation, what I'll wear, what I'll give Advisor as a thank-you gift, where I'll hold the graduation party and what food there will be etc etc . I know it's still too early to think of all that crap right now, but a little dreaming won't hurt, especially that I'm trying to convince myself that defending will be associated with a lot of fun and pleasurable things and is not an event to dread.
Coming back to our wonderful Real World, I have to keep in mind that the annual poster conference is next month, so I have to start preparing for that.
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