A belated and happy conclusion

After recently discussing this long lost blog with a friend in the depths of writing her dissertation, I realized I never posted the finale/conclusion to my own dissertation writing adventure! That November of 2011 I was finally victorious! After a challenging and constructive defense, I anxiously sat outside while the committee deliberated my fate.  Then my co-chair, MC, came out, called me "doctor" and received my enthusiastic hug (which nearly toppled him over).

My chapter on Thackeray & India was published that spring, I presented on Thackeray & America at NAVSA in Pasadena in October (a venture which my fulfilling tenure track job at DCCC funded) and am set to present on Thackeray & Ireland at the MACBS in Atlanta this fall.  

As I sit in this coffee shop, the familiar position of latte at my right elbow and neck crooked over my laptop keyboard, and I churn out a whimsical paper on Frances Trollope and her reflections of America for the upcoming British Women's Writers Conference, I wanted to note that it was worth it.  My adviser smartly "advised" me that while pursuing your PhD, you'll wake up one morning and wonder what happened to your 20s.  She was right, but the academic/career destination to which that PhD delivered me in my 30s is rather fantastic.

THE END