Tonight we had the unexpected "treat" of getting to watch a thesis defense during the first hour of our classtime. Consider me officially terrified about what is to come! I could not believe the depths of historiographical knowledge they expected the poor girl to have - in addition, of course, to the vast knowledge of her subject and every subject remotely close to her subject. For example, her topic was about a group of Puritans who became Quakers in the space of seventy years. One prof asked her a question about fifteenth century Spanish mysticism! I am so glad that that particular prof, whom I hold in the highest regard, will not be on my thesis committee! Of course, I'll have one prof who's even more thorough and difficult than him, so I guess I really have no room for celebration.
Oy. I knew thesis defense would be a scary matter, but I had no idea just how intense it would be. Having witnessed tonight, I am now thinking that I would like about ten years to prepare for my own defense! I'll say one thing: I have definitely decided to go with as obscure of a topic as I can - that way the profs won't be able to ask me as many questions! (I hope . . . though I have a strong feeling that they'll still find a way.)
I think I officially reached the epoch of geekdom tonight. I emailed a prof with my suggested topic for my research paper . . . for the summer class that doesn't even start for another month. Oh, and I have already started the research, because I know he'll approve the topic. Yup, no social life here!
Tomorrow is going to be a day of work (in other words, just like any other day). I got most of my weekly housecleaning done today, but I need to finish a bit tomorrow. Also, I will be working on additional research for my big research paper, doing a few revisions to the paper, and grading another student's paper (then meeting with her to explain my critique). Fortunately, this time I was lucky and got the paper of someone who is an excellent writer (so I've heard - and I believe it based on her classroom performance). I will also be attempting to finish yet another book that I need to review. Fun, fun! No, I actually wasn't being sarcastic.
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