I survived. Barely, but all that counts is that I'm still here. Yesterday was manageable, today was deadly. I'm not making any predictions as to whether or not I passed -- if I did, I wouldn't be surprised as I felt fairly confident about most of my answers; if I failed, I also wouldn't be surprised, as I knew my answers weren't in as much detail as they could have been. But now there is no point in dwelling on how I did or what I should have studied differently... there's nothing else that can be done until I find out how I did, sometime within the next few months.
In the meantime, I have more important things to worry about, like trying to cram an entire winter break into three days. Since I spent my whole break studying, I now get a three-day weekend which has to satisfy my entire vacation need for the next 6 months since I probably will not take off another day until June (okay, maybe I'll get to take one day off if I can go home for a Passover seder). My mini-break started off on the right foot -- my boyfriend surprised me with a dozen peach roses (I'm impressed he remembered my favorite rose color) and dinner reservations at Jaleo, out favorite tapas restaurant, to celebrate the fact that I survived comps! (I think I should have been the one to take him out for putting up with me the past few days, but then again I had to put up with him for the entire month when he was studying for his medical boards -- at least I was away from him for most of my study period!)
As for the rest of the weekend, I plan on (hopefully) getting my first decent night of sleep in a month (hopefully sans the comprehensive exam nightmares that have been plaguing me lately), reading something other than Molecular Biology of the Cell or Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology, hopefully finishing up the border on the giant afghan I haven't had time to crochet in months, and watching the re-runs of Grey's Anatomy on abc.com since I've been too busy studying to watch any TV since before Thanksgiving. I think tomorrow I'm also go to go to the pet store to set up a new fish tank and then go back on Monday to buy new fish -- two months ago, I bought a fish for my tank that came with a parasitic infection and it wiped out the whole tank, so it's time to start over. Basically, I will be enjoying a totally SCIENCE-FREE weekend. Since my PI is out west for a conference and apparently has a good possibility of being snowed in on Monday, he canceled the lab meeting so I am going to take the day off like the rest of the world to just relax before I head back and immediately have to start working on my abstract for the poster session coming up next month.
STICK A FORK IN ME BABY, BECAUSE I AM DONE WITH COMPS!!!
Friday, January 12, 2007
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Congratulations for being done! I experience an almost euphoric relief after big events such as those (though yours sounded particularly painful) regardless of the outcome because I get to take a break and think of other things. I hope you enjoy your meager break before getting back to work. And I'm glad the stress level has lifted considerably. :)
ReplyDeleteLove your blog. Just came across it while "breaking" (ok, wasting time and feeling guilty doing it, of course) from my own comp THIS FRIDAY, the 19th. I am also in the DC area, but am in social science, which is its own special kind of torture. Keep up the blogging.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing up! I did that in September and it was such a great feeling to be done... now I am in dissertation hell!
ReplyDeletePipettes Rule!
ReplyDeletep.s. Did you notice that you left yourself a congratulatory comment above?
I'm a web surfer who's applying for grad school. I was thinking, "wow, if I could go all the way and get a PhD, it would give so much meaning to my life. It would make me so happy to be admitted to a PhD program! Finally, I wouldn't have to feel like I'm wasting my potential doing idiotic work that I hate!" Looking at how unhappy you seem to be sort of makes me smile. Maybe I shouldn't surround myself with such high expectations. That being said, I aspire to your level of unhappiness.
ReplyDeleteHi Julie,
ReplyDeleteI am starting up a scientific help Web site and was wondering if you are still in grad school (incidentally, are you at GW? That's where I got my PhD), and if you'd be at all interested in contributing some of your wit and wisdom for the benefit of other poor grad students and/or postdocs. Please let me know!