#dissertation defense

In five easy steps, you can earn a real PhD! Here's how:

Choose a subject in which you can get a PhD, such as Caviar Debrining, Musical Glassware Demolition, or Cunnilingus.

Enroll in a graduate school that offers a PhD course in your topic, such as CU Boulder, the Academy of Raya Lucaria, or the Royal Institute for the Study and Performance of Cunnilingus.

Achieve 80-140 hours of class credits in relevant coursework, such as Advanced Bullshitting, Making Up MLA Format Citations That Sound Real, and Warping Irrelevant Quotations So They Will Appear To Fit Your Points (Cunning Linguistics).

Compose a dissertation in the medium demanded by your field, such as an Essay, Scientific Treatise, or Oral Presentation.

After the defense of my dissertation, I'll be submitting my dissertation to the library about 2 weeks later and then graduating in May!

I was also asked to go to one last conference so in May I will be presenting my work.

Then I will be working as a post doctorate for about two months while I look for work elsewhere where the goal will be to write and submit my final two journal articles and also continue with assisting in external project work.

And then on to a new job, new area, no school!!!!

The culmination of years of research, analysis, and writing, the dissertation is the final hurdle that every doctoral student must cross. However, the journey doesn’t end there. After submitting the dissertation, students are required to defend their work in front of a committee of academic experts. This is known as the dissertation defense, and it is a crucial step in obtaining a doctoral…

Years of work brought me here.

Days alone with ancient ghosts

and spirits living and dead.

Years of work brought me here:

once a hall now a cavern.

This is normal; smile; relax.

Project.

Don't echo.

I am not alone; spirits are here.

Watching. Cheering. Supporting.

I cannot see them, but I know.

I trust; I believe. They are here.

I am not alone.

Years of work brought me here.

This is normal.

I am not alone.

Smile.

Relax.

On Wednesday, October 17th, I successfully defended my PhD dissertation!!! 👩🏻‍🎓🎉

It would not have been possible without support from various family, friends, colleagues, teachers, professors, and librarians over the course of my education. And, of course, I am deeply thankful to my family for their unyielding love, encouragement, and prayers throughout my life.

It was bittersweet when my dissertation chair shook my hand as she addressed me with my new title for the first time: “Congratulations, Dr. Mannan.” I still keep thinking everyone’s talking about my dad, considering he’s been Dr. Mannan since before I was even born. I wish he’d been here for this, but I’m going to do my best to make his soul proud that I share the title with him now. ♥️

I'm also thinking today I might as well plan to go over calories. I have a late laaaaate night planned considering the final slides for my defense and my dissertation both have to be completed tonight. That way tomorrow afternoon my committee and I can discuss glaring formatting issues or major edits needed prior to my defense friday. Which will give me all of Thursday for corrections, practicing my defense, printing/binding my dissertation, printing slides, placing an order for coffee and sweets to pick up Friday prior to my defense.

So I got this. But I know I'll be stressed and up extremely late and possibly an all nighter so adding calorie counting to today would just add even more stress. So I'll remember that one bad day this week isn't going to ruin me. I'll still be mindful of what I eat for the rest of the day considering this morning prior to a 2 hour nap (since I pulled an all nighter last night) I ate 3 dark chocolate biscottis and 8 dark chocolate Milano cookies. 😂 so I'm already at 710 for the day. So there's a chance to still end slightly above maintenance if I'm smart about my next two meals.

I'm planning on a raspberry vanilla yogurt oat bowl for one (350ish) and maybe a big tuna salad sandwich (375ish) and a blueberry vanilla yogurt oat bowl to finish my all nighter out (450ish). This should keep me around maintenance but also satisfied.

Wish me luck! When I finish my defense, expect lots of experimental and simulation posts sharing the non-security controlled images. They're very cool to me and I think others will think so too. 😊

Also, side note, when I tell people my simulations run in Fortran people always go WOAH! That's old. Haha.

Here's some pictures of my dinner last night. I highly recommend this. Feel free to change the tuna to chicken if you'd like or a vegan alternative. I love pan-fried and marinated crispy tofu as an alternative.

This meal was (560) and incredibly satisfying. I did more than a serving of the pasta because 56 g made me sad to see so I did 90 g instead.

Here's the pasta I used. I recommend following the cooking time to the full 14 minutes otherwise it does have more of an odd texture, but it's really good. It's pricier, so definitely more of an occasional thing for me.

This is tuna, pasta (pictured above), green olives, capers, kalamata olives, spinach and spring mix, lemon juice, crumbled goat cheese.

Protein: 61g, Fiber: 14