Saturday, April 12, 2008

So...

Could anyone tell me how to act like a normal human being, now that those written exams are over?

It feels like they're not over; it feels like I'm making up stories when I say "the written exams are over." My tummy still feels as tense as it did yesterday morning. Maybe it's because I worry that maybe I didn't word the answers to that last exam as coherently as I did for the other ones. And I worry that perhaps I didn't finish as well as I'd wanted to. I spent some time last night, trying to sleep, but mulling over what else I should have mentioned in my answers. Seriously: I suddenly opened my eyes and almost said out loud: "I forgot to mention cinema in the syllabus!" (My tiredness this morning also may have to do with the fact that my shoulder started hurting in the night, to the point that it woke me up at least once.)

I guess I worry most because that was the exam for my supervisor, and I worry about disappointing him. And so I don't know how much I'll be able to relax until I've heard that I'm being passed on to the oral exams, from all three of the rest of my profs.

But I have to find a way to relax and act like a normal human. I'm taking the whole weekend off, just for that purpose.

4 comments:

Kate said...

What worked for me was going out, alone, and lying down in the grass in the park and just staring at the sky. I don't know how long I was there. It helped me reconnect with nature, I suppose. I remember thinking "Wow, it's spring!" (This was in May.) I felt much better after I did that.

Also: w0000t on finishing the writtens!!

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Ha. That's pretty well exactly what was happening. Chris had been out running errands, and then he walked in and said "That's it: I'm taking you outside." And we went out and I sat in the grass. And then we played Trivial Pursuit on the back stoop.

Limon de Campo said...

Congrats on finishing. I'm sure you did great.

I finished my PhD in 2005: I still feel like they are going to come and take it away from me any minute.

The History Enthusiast said...

Yay for you! I know how you feel though. It took a while to sink in that I was actually done. I guarantee that you will start to feel better, but even now I am still awestruck by the fact that I am actually ABD. And I took my exams at the end of November!