I accepted a postdoc position the day before my defense (which definitely took some of the pressure off!) but I was disheartened that none of my committee members validated that accomplishment in my closed-door session. Luckily, my friends and co-workers were very excited for me. It's a tough economy and most of my friends spent months looking for a job -- and that was with the degree in hand!
Then in mid-May, I went through the commencement ceremony. I was #13 in the hooding procession, so the whole stepping up to the podium and shaking everyone's hands was a blur, but I'm glad I was in the beginning rather than at the end. My parents enthusiastically took pictures and cheered for me. The rest of the ceremony was rather long and boring, but I got to spend the time chatting with my adviser and giggling as people were gagged or smacked in the face with the Ph.D. hood.
I recently received my bound dissertation and it looks darn good. I'm surprised how professional and intimidating it looks, since all those hours writing it are just a faint glimmer in my mind. I was really impressed with the Karen at the binding company. She kept me updated during the entire process and notified me if she found anything unusual -- like an extra page.
Since then, I've relocated to another state. I will be starting my postdoc in a couple of weeks. 'Til then, I'll be at the beach!
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Image courtesy of:
http://ccacblog.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/captioning-for-graduation-make-it-happen/
