Degree Status: F'ing Done!

I have held off on an actual, "Yeah, I'm really done with my degree" post, even though the thesis deadline was a few weeks ago, and as far as I could tell, I had completed all the degree requirements. However, given how painful all this jumping through final hoops has been ("You have to ship another 3 copies of your 300 pages thesis to Canada, because your page numbers are in the wrong place."), I figured that there were still infinite numbers of things that could still go wrong. E.g., the office key that was returned by my friend was not actually entered into my account, and the warning notice went to the wrong address; there was a library book that I never heard about that had been taken out in my name, etc., etc.

However, I have been up in KW since Friday for work, and I got email telling me the bound copy of my thesis was ready. Holy crap:


(For some reason, this picture reminds me of, "I am being held for ransom; here is a copy of today's newspaper to prove that I am still alive at this date." Anyway.)

Yep, it's here, and it's real. To confirm, I went to the Graduate Studies Office, and they cut me an official letter stating I had completed all graduation requirements (I needed it for other reasons). And the online database agrees:


So at the risk of appearing to be trolling for 'congrat's' here, I believe I am, as I said, f'ing done. Holy crap. Many thanks to all of you who have provided such wonderful emotional support during this entire academic arc--as per the last line of my thesis dedication:

Finally, my widely scattered friends were my lifeline and connection to the community that I left behind in Boston. With their kindness and correspondence from all over the continent, they helped fight the isolation that I felt moving away from my home of over a decade, and helped me keep a measure of sanity throughout the darkest hours of this degree.