Hallelujah! And Amen.

So- How many of you readers out there knew that I was working on a Master of Science degree? Well, the short story is that I was and I passed my thesis defense today (hallelujah!) and it's over (amen).

For those of you who haven't seen me much lately, the 16-18 hour days are over and maybe my life will return back to normal. (After a week at youth camp, anyway.) By the way- whatever it was that allowed me to work 18 hours a day is suddenly gone. I was ready for bed at 8:30.

The slightly longer story is that I started grad school in physics, but before I finished, I got a job. Then we bought a house. Then we had a kid. Then another kid. And another. And somewhere in there, I started losing motivation.

I tried seveal times to get started on it again, but the long and short of it was that I didn't have the proper motivation or mindset. My friends quit asking about. My parents quit asking. Regina quit asking. But, always, it was there, eating at me. I wanted it done, but I didn't want to do the work.

The one person that didn't quit asking was my grandfather. Always, he would ask. "I'm working on it, Granddaddy." Sometimes, it was true, other times, a white lie. Last summer, when I could tell that his time with us drawing to a close, he asked again. I decided that if he still thought I could do it, I would do it. I started working diligently. I wanted to finish it for him. When we lost him just before Thanksgiving, I lost some of my motivation.

I came to the conclusion, though, that I could do this for him. It ended being a sort of "perfect storm" of many things- motivation on my part; Regina was motivated for me and allowed my many late nights and time away from the family to get it done; the kids were great and very patient with me and excited for me; Dr. Benesh's (my advisor) schedule allowed him time to meet with me probably more than he wanted to. And a deadline from the grad school didn't hurt, either. No more extensions! (what, no more? It's only been, oh, I don't know, 6 or so...)

So, anyway, I passed the defense and I have only minor revisions to make to my paper, so I will graduate in August. Only 13 years after I started in the program!