3 Weeks to D-Day

It's hard to believe, but it's now 3 weeks until my PhD defense exam. I had blown through so many self-forecasted deadlines I just didn't want to predict another estimate of "when I'd be done".

It's actually been a calendar month since handing in my thesis and it's been odd to not be working on it or making further changes. Of course there was still other work to do including scheduling the exam. It's actually amazing how many bureaucratic tasks, forms, signatures, procedures, etc. one must go through before scheduling the final exam. Often the hardest part is finding a time slot that works for 5-6 professors at the same time. In my case, one of the examiners could only make 1 out of 33 possible time slots and miraculously, the other five examiners could do it at that time as well.

And on an odd coincidence, today I found out who the Chair of the oral exam is. The exam Chair is chosen by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and typically is from a field far-removed from the student. For my exam, the head of the Department of Orthopaedics from the Faculty of Medicine will chair the exam. And it just so happens that he is the same surgeon who some 16 years ago, operated on my knee (all of the surgeries). It seems amazing to me because that crash and more specfically the injury I sustained, is what prompted my University education and lead me into the obscure field of Injury Biomechanics accessed typically after an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. I had a chance to thank this surgeon 10 years ago, in an undergraduate Biomechanics course where he was a guest speaker, and now I'll get to thank him again, for restoring my knee - which really restored my life, and for donating his time.

Anyways, I've slightly modified this cartoon to represent my situation now. Even though there is way more to review before the exam than I ever possibly could, I have a few more hard weeks of preparation to put in before the exam. I've been to several defenses now, and no matter how amazing the particular student is, this examination procedure is feared by all PhD candidates and I doubt any PhD-grad out there would not list his/her defense exam among their worst days of their life....until it's over anyways!

So if you're reading this...please cross your fingers for me and think good thoughts Monday Dec. 5th at 4:00 PM PST.

Until then I'll let Mrs. McNelson keep up the great work on the blog...