Today I wrote my final candidacy exam. It ended up being all about crowds, whereas my original proposal was about mobs, and my eventual dissertation will be about working-class demonstrations -- in literature, for all of the above.

I'm feeling pretty good about it. It's amazing how stupid jumping the exam hoops actually is, though -- no one writes three essays in seven hours in academia, unless they're totally fucking insane, and maybe hopped up on coke (although that's really unlikely, because academics probably can't afford coke. Generally, we can barely afford car payments).

In about 2 or 3 weeks, after I've revised my dissertation proposal, I'll have an oral exam on my list and my proposal, and then I can put the little letters "PhD ABD" beside my name. ABD means all but dissertation -- so, in other words, the fun of writing begins once those words are attached.

Mike made me a celebratory dinner since we're too broke to go out, and in so many ways staying at home after a seven hour exam (that I wrote on five hours of sleep) is actually very preferable to dinner out, where you have to get all dressed up and not be loud and assy all night. Being stupid at home is so much more fun!

3 Comments:

Add a comment