Today I had to present my Master’s thesis. It wasn’t a defense or anything like that, but as the culminating event in my graduate program, it was a big enough deal. That’s why I was so delighted that the tech guy took so long setting up the computer/overhead that I didn’t get to start until seven minutes into my 20 minutes was up (even though I got there 45 minutes early to avoid such snafus), and that two slides in, the computer froze up entirely. I decided to soldier on without the damn slides, until eventually my adviser realized that perhaps she should ask the tech guy to help. In the end, I had slides for less than half of my presentation; all I had were my barely legible and comprehensible notes. I did fine despite it, I suppose, but it wasn’t as smooth as I’d have preferred. I didn’t need to go home and cry afterwards, but the situation did, however, warrant cheese fries and ice cream for dinner.
I still have a paper to write, but other than that, my schooling should be done. Everyone keeps insisting I must feel excited, but it’s been so long and slowly in coming that graduating hardly feels especially notable. This degree doesn’t seem to be making any kind of difference in my employability (okay, I haven’t tried that hard, because I am conflicted about working more). And, contrary to all of my expectations for the entirety of my life, I think I will miss school at least a little. It’s sort of nice to go alone somewhere one evening a week and talk about non-baby things. For example, if it weren’t for my latest gay German teacher school friend (there has, remarkably, been a series of these), I never would have learned about bears and twinks. As you can see, education is very important.
