Comps

One of the major milestones in the PhD journey is passing comprehensive exams.  They are pass or fail, include any information from your 3 years of coursework, and are very high stakes.  If you pass, you can keep going, if you fail, you are done.  I studied HARD for them.  Weeks in my room, hours of reading, days in my PJs.  I can honestly say I could have studied not one more thing. There were lots of meals like this for the kids.

 I felt ready and incredibly nervous.  Doug and I had a sitter stay with the kids and went up to Logan.  I wanted him there to support me when I had my many expected breakdowns.  He was a wonderful cheerleader for me!  

Here I am studying till I dropped one day.  Haleigh stole my glasses and my phone to document the moment.

Enjoying Aggie ice cream...a favorite stop when we are in town.

The night before mexican restaurant had a great dessert.  

Then the next day, eight hours later, almost 30 pages, no internet or resources at my disposal except for a computer with a blank word document and my super secret comp questions that were given to me that morning...

here is my after shot.  Pure mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. 

After a quick nap, we went to my favorite restaurant where I was terrible company and let Doug watch basketball while I stared at a wall like a zombie and ate a good helping of pasta.

Days, later I learned that I passed and can now go on to  my dissertation work.  No more classes, only research, committee approvals, and lots and lots of editing.