I passed!!!!!

Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, I'm free at last.

Just 2 days after MLK's birthday, I am free at last.

I passed the Qs!

Yesterday was a crazy day that ended with my oral Qs. My department is looking to hire a new evolutionary biologist (yay! more on that later) and I was busy all morning / afternoon with lunches and talks because of the search. Then, suddenly, it was 2:30 and I was in a room with 3 committee members and a speaker phone (because my 4th committee member is now at another university, which is why we're searching for a new faculty member).

It lasted 2 hours, but they flew by. I was talking the whole time and stumbled only a little. My final question was the scariest. Ry's advisor (who happens to also be one of my committee members) had told me to study subjects dealing with neurons in a specific area of the brain during development that are important in reproduction in adult animals. Which I did, and answered his first question with little effort. His final question to me was about the beginning of brain development. Which I have not even looked at for about 6 months.

It was like telling me to study George W. Bush and then asking me about George Washington.

But, I opened my mouth and words just came out. I was able to explain the groundbreaking experiment about early neural organization. I even drew diagrams -- complete with salamanders with smiley faces.

It was weird. I was surprised that somewhere in my brain, I do actually know stuff.

The absolute best part is that I passed -- with no strings attached. Sometimes students pass on the condition that they take another class or give a lecture to undergrads on a topic they stumbled on or write a paper. But I passed!!!!

Now, I promise to never write about Qs again and get on with my life!!! YAY!!!!

And thanks to everyone for their support!! Especially Ry, DancingFish, Hamster_Grrl, mamagumm, Kathryn, Anna, George, BF Kim, BF-in-law, BJ, Dr. D., Joe, V, and the family (who understood that I couldn't be home for the holidays because of this). Without you all, I would have dropped out of school a long time ago!!