Defended!

The title of the post should be belted/growled like Strong Bad.

I'm sure many of you received Beth's e-mail yesterday, but... it's fun to reiterate. Yesterday morning I defended my dissertation and passed my oral examination. It was really more of a conversation, but my adviser and readers posed some tough questions and made me sweat through my shirt. Overall, though, I feel pretty good about my answers, and their questions will help shape my final revisions. My adviser, Dr. Tom Postlewait, and I will work to revise my introduction (which may become two separate chapters), my conclusion, and my freakin' awesome appendix (a 40+ page calendar of important productions/events in London from 1889-1918). We'll take a couple weeks to do the revisions, and I should have it uploaded (we get to submit it electronically, which saves a LOT of trouble) by May 25th.

So I'm confused now... when do you get to call yourself Dr.? Is it now? Is it officially after graduation (I suppose TECHNICALLY it's after the University president confers the degree at commencement). But when is that? Not that I'm dying to sign everything "Dr. Nicholas Dekker" just yet (okay, yes I am!), but... I'm curious when these little landmarks take effect. No one really teaches you these things!

Our commencement (Ohio State's 380th, by the by) is Sunday, June 10th in the Ohio Stadium. I'll be one of the handful of students who actually have their name read. There's no limit on tickets, so anyone is welcome to come down. And our commencement speaker is President Clinton, so if you're dying to hear him speak... now's your chance! (We were disappointed that both Jon Stewart and Barack Obama turned us down, though...)

So a special thank you to all the friends and family who have seen Beth and I through this process. It's been a long five (five?!) years of first the master's and now the Piled-Higher-and-Deeper. This is a dream come true, I guess... there was always this part of me that thought this degree was unattainable, like it would be too hard or too much work or something. Although that certainly didn't stop me from doing it!

Nick

P.S. Oh, and I also found out pretty officially yesterday (as in, the Department Chair called me into his office and told me) that I'll be back at Ohio State next year (and possibly a second!) leading Intro to Theatre AND teaching some other classes. Woohoo! I wonder how good faculty and staff football seats are...