One of the most stressful weeks of my entire life... is over

I am officially done with my doctoral prelims, and I really don't know how to describe that feeling. On one hand, I am SO physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted, and I have never felt like this in my life. I have taken 16 hours of exams over the past 4 days, which covered around 12 classes that I have taken toward my Ph.D. I sat in a tiny little room in Dodd Hall just me, the computer, my snacks, and a paper and pen from 9-1 this past Monday through today. My brain could not POSSIBLY hold any more scholastic information. I feel like I want to go home and watch 10 episodes of Maury Povich to bring me back down to reality and out of the bubble that is college. I feel that getting a Ph.D. is half about having the stamina to do it. My major professor said the same thing once. She understood (obviously) the stress, exhaustion, and even depression I have felt over the past week. Don't worry-it's not a bad depression, just a depression over how much work I had to do. It's really hard to describe if you haven't been through it. It's a bit overwhelming.

On the other hand, I am overjoyed at having these exams done that I have been worrying about for the past YEAR. Now comes the orals in the spring (most likely, unless they are going to be in December), and then I finally get to work on my dissertation. I think anyone that says a Ph.D. is not worth doing I am going to kick in the teeth. ; ) I just can't feel too much happiness right now b/c I am so tired. There are bags under my eyes too. haha

So that has been my life for the past however many weeks now. Studying studying studying. I finally get to relax and take a while off. Mikey is coming down next weekend and I cannot wait! The new Zorro movie is coming out too, and I cannot wait for that and to see Antonio again. Today is also my Grandma Wickham's b'day. She died in 1992, and would have been 95 this year. : ( Hi grandma. She's the one who got me hooked on my soaps 23 years ago.

One other thing I find interesting: I saw on Fox during one of the World Series games that the chances of the Red Sox and White Sox repeating their titles back to back like they did in 1917 and 1918 was 1 in a billion or something like that. And now it happened. Life is weird. Wonder if Nostradamus predicted that. hahahaha