A Birth Announcement of Sorts

It's a pleasure for me to announce the safe delivery of the nine-page conclusions
section of my thesis. Last Monday evening, October 17, I submitted by email to
my two thesis readers in Britain the revamped final conclusions of my thesis. For
the previous three weeks or so I had been putting in eight and nine hour days, ex-
cept on Sundays. My problem was that I had too much material, so I had to do a
lot of cutting out of stuff I had written. Plus I was always having insights or mak-
ing connections in my mind as I was waking up in the mornings. I jotted the in-
sights down on paper as I got out of bed. It took a while for my mind to shape my
thoughts for inclusion in the thesis. I was under pressure because this was my last
chance for my thesis to be accepted in full.

About a week before I resubmitted, I sent my first draft to an academic advisor
at  the University of St. Andrews. He thought two sections were fine, and made
a few suggestions on the other two. I re-wrote the two sections and sent them
back to him. I thought that I would have more work to do to craft the final two
sections, but the advisor emailed me that the two sections were very well done
and that I should wrap up the conclusions and submit them. He even congratua-
lated me for the thesis meeting the qualifications.  

A part of me wanted to keep working on the conclusions, shaping it until it was
perfect. But another part of me was telling me to put it down as it was and sub-
mit it. So, I did the latter; I really did not struggle with the decision. I emailed it
off to the two readers and then got a good night's sleep. The next day, the main
reader emailed me that he had received my conclusions and that he had for-
warded them to the other reader. He wrote that they would get back to me just
as soon as they could. Despite the congratulations of the advisor, only the two
readers can make the decision whether it qualifies or not.

I feel at rest with what I wrote. Things fell into place the two weeks before I sub-
mitted my conclusions. At the end,  I felt a click like when two pieces made for
each other snap together. I feel content and satisfied with my work. There is a pos-
sibility that it won't be accepted, but if that is the case, so be it. I am grateful to the
Lord for giving me this time to work through some critical issues in my mind. The
last two years have been wonderful for me as I have worked through the thesis.
My two readers gave me more opportunities than I deserved to do what they asked
me to do. I would not have done all this work without their prodding me. It is as if
they saw something in my thesis that needed more time to mature, and they gave me
the additional time. It was just what I needed. So, now it is not only out of  my mind,
but out of my hands.  That feels so good! I hope to get back to my real life. I hope to
be able to get back to blog writing.

Blessings to you and yours,