Done!

Really, totally, completely done! After having gone back and forth a number of times with the editorial office to finalize the dissertation, they finally sent me an e-mail that I've met their requirements. It's over!

Thanks to everyone for cheering me on, from the deepest of depths to highest of peaks, thanks for all your support, advice, good wishes, and all the other things I'm too emotional to think about right now.

Special thanks to Brazen Hussy for hosting InaDWriMo 2008. Having a counter and a blog to put it on to keep you painfully aware of your (lack of) progress helped me more than I can express. I would highly recommend putting up some sort of counter to help you with your goals. It didn't hurt matters that I had some pretty solid deadlines from the university to work with, but I had options if I failed to meet those. I could have postponed graduation with a semester without having to pay additional tuition fees by submitting in early January, I could have been stuck with having to pay for 3 credits of tuition next semester and graduated in May if I had decided to not finish by early January. It might have made things tougher, but they were real options that I seriously considered.

I think ultimately what pushed me through is the support from my family. They paid a really high price in terms of my absence of the past year. I hope it was worth it. I have some major repair work to do there. Hopefully I'll have some time now.

It seems like an incredibly long road, but I did finish up in 4 years. I started this program in January 2005. That's not too bad for having 3 kids (4, if you count the husband), one of which with special needs. I sincerely hope they will be rewarded for their efforts.

Thank you so much everybody!!!

Now back to regular blogging.