Thursday, April 16, 2009

The light at the end of the tunnel

Many of you are aware that I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Microbiology, and that it's been making me miserable for a good while now. I don't want to throw a pity party for myself, but overall, I would describe my graduate school experience as "spirit-crushing." It's been a long and mostly horrible six years.

However, my fortunes have shifted recently, in that after a long period of stagnation, my experiments are giving me positive data that I can use to put together a manuscript for publication and finish off my thesis. I had a committee meeting on Tuesday and I finally got the green light- meaning that I'll spend the summer finishing up some more lab work, submitting a manuscript, writing my dissertation, and I should be ready to defend in August or September. THANK GOD.

I still have a lot of work to do, but the end is finally in sight.

17 comments:

S said...

Congrats!
My husband made it through a whole quarter of grad school in biology before he switched to business.
Good job on sticking with it!

J.R. said...

YES!!!!!

Tina said...

Congrats! I am so happy for you!

Anonymous said...

WOOT!

Nitsirk said...

Woo-hoo! Great news.

Suldog said...

Good for you!

Thanks for stopping by at my place, and for the link-love. It has been reciprocated.

Kris said...

So glad to hear it! Congrats.

Stacey said...

Yay! Congratulations.

To Be Announced said...

AWESOME!

carmen said...

great!

Liz said...

Positive data!!!! yaaaay!!!!

Kevin said...

That's great news, Eileen. As you're a runner, you'll know how great it is when you can see the finish line and know what you have to do to get there. Good luck this summer.

eileen said...

Thanks, everybody!

brigita said...

HOORAY!!!1

ahd said...

Wonderful news eileen. Yes, I still read your blog.

Alice

Sue said...

Congrats, Eileen! That is such awesome news!! Good luck!!

lisa kate said...

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY