Failure is not an option!

I've finally done it!

I just ran my last group through my thesis research and now have a complete set of 34. There were times when I sincerely didn't think I was going to make it to this point. I mean after I went to recruit participants from that first class of 30+ students, gave my pitch, passed around my sign-up sheet, and found one name on it when I picked it up, I really didn't know if I was ever going to complete my degree. There were so many times when I had my table full of cookies set out in the hallway, and a class of potential participants would get out, and I would only have two or three people even look at the sign-up lists. Hours of waiting outside classrooms, running around between buildings, racking my brain for ways to entice (but not coerce) people into participating. All of it has finally paid off and I have a 7" stack of papers on my office floor to show for my efforts. I know that I still have a long way to go to analyze the results, write up the final sections of my thesis, and then defend my final product in front of my committee, but I don't hesitate to say that this battle from which I have just emerged victorious has definitely turned the tide of the war in my favor. Hopefully I will be turning that 7" stack of papers into a nice, crisp "Master of Science" degree that should be arriving just after Christmas.

In closing I want to thank my dear wife for being so supportive and sympathetic during this profoundly taxing time, as well as all of my fellow grad students and other professors that so willingly let me recruit students from their classes. This degree is going to be so much more meaningful than the bachelor's degree I have hanging on my wall - the difference in the price paid for each is so significant that I really feel as though I have accomplished something that few people do. Thank heavens! Wish me luck on the final stretch of this exacting race, and remember that when "Failure is not an option," you will find a way to succeed!