And here is the requisite overexposed shot of the exhausted graduate in the ungodly unflattering monkey suit
with children squeezing all the breath out of her. They just don't make mortarboards to look good on anyone 
I told the dean (the one I work for, that is) that he had an advantage over me... no hat-hair! (He's basically bald. Love to tease him about that. He blushes so prettily )You have JWR to blame for having this inflicted upon you, btw.
This was from last night. Nothing like racing through the week from Hades and then having to drag yourself back out on Friday night. At least, being the mid-year graduation, the ceremony was mercifully short !
My only "oops" was that when the President (whose name also is Kay
) called for the candidates for the Master's degree in arts & sciences, education and social sciences (something like that... those of us with the white trim on our hoods) to come forward to receive our diplomas, it took me a second to twig. Lady beside me was going to go apoplectic if I didn't stand and move out. I'm so used to doing the faculty side of this whole business that I forgot I was one of the students! 
And now... I had better get cracking on Christmas mail-outs!
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Original Post:
You may or may not know that I've been pursuing a doctorate since 2000. After limping to the finish line of my last class eight months ago, I took a deep breath, looked at where I was, what an awful state my health (physical AND mental) had gotten into, and how many other things I wanted to do with my time aside from write a dissertation.
And decided to bag it.
The deciding factors were that I loved my topic too much to write a dissertation on it, because that level of over-exposure and constant criticism can lead you to hate it. (My spouse hasn't touched "transactional distance" since he got his done). The other factor was having both the Spouzal Unit and the Physician Unit give me variations of "if you don't do somethinig about the stress you're going to be dead in five years."However, I am too stubborn to just walk away.
(Surprised? I think not!) We did some wrangling and finagling with the Poombah of Bean-Counting at the graduate school, and were able to figure out a way to convert my 80+ hours of credit work into a 30 credit hour masters. I did still have to take the comprehensive exams, though, just so they could torture me a little more
. It's been a couple of the most stress-laden, hideous weeks in recent memory, but I turned in the take-home portion of the exam yesterday!
Sixteen pages of gloriously-composed egregious trash! (They only wanted six... but the questions they gave me could have entire monographic series written about them).Health state: crummy.
Mental alertness: Lousy (can you say.... toast?)
Stress level: collapse.
Happiness quotient: ZOOOM!!
I won't know for a few weeks whether I passed, but for better or worse I am DONE!
