...And the Winner is...

ME!

This morning, after a fretful sleep during which I apparently bit my lip so hard it split on the inside, I went to school in a panic. I had no class this morning, no group meeting, or any other typical reason for why you might assume I'd be at school on a Monday morning. What I had, was my Capstone thesis defence.

After spending this weekend scurrying to get my capstone to the examiner, as well as putting together a powerpoint presentation for the defence, I was mortified to find out that our printer was out of ink and dirty anyway. How was I going to print my materials for the defence??

So I was up super early at 6:30 am (after going to bed at 2 am) because my defence was scheduled for 9 am, and I needed to go to school to print stuff. Except when I got there, the faculty offices door was still lock, and the library and computer labs were still closed...at 8:30 on a Monday morning?? What?? And the panic was starting to set in as the minutes ticked by and I had to be downstairs to set up.

Thankfully, Christine a 1st/2nd year student arrived and had enough printing credits for our student printer in the Grad room, and I was able to print all 98 pages of my capstone and my 7 speaking notes pages...I threw $10 at her in gratitude, for something that should have cost just a smidge over $5, and bolted downstairs with 5 minutes to spare.

My examiner showed up, but my supervisor was 15 minutes late! And...GO!

Did I mention that the first time I mock defended my capstone, my presentation was shite, and I spent much of last night revising it entirely? No? Yeah, well, my mock defence presentation was shite and I revised nearly the whole thing last night. AND IT WORKED!

My supervisor was very pleased with my presentation and has asked me to send her my slides so she can give them to future students as a template. As for the defence itself, I wasn't surprised by most of the comments and questions, and in the end, I have was are considered minor revisions (stuff about explaining and expanding on subjects), no major flawholes in my project...I revise in 3 or 4 days, turn it over to Nancy, wait for the final okay, and then I ship it off to the printer and the Library!

For serious, dear reader...it's been a long, at times bitter ride to get to this point. I've been working through illnesses, a painful (but amicable) breakdown of my marriage, the problems my marriage breakdown created for my relationship with my parents, traveling back and forth to Ottawa, a cousin's death, the Olympics madness, my brother's illness, and a host of other problems. My supervisor has never seen so much happen to a single student in the program in one school year, never mind the fact that I still came out swinging. I had my moments of weakness, and I'm entitled to them, but in the end, I was determined to win. And that, I did!

Fancy C. Poitras, BA, PBD, MPP (unofficial)...stay tuned...at some point, I'll forget all the madness I've endured, and start applying to PhD programs! But for now at least...it's nap time :)