it was a couple hours late, and all I can think about is all the things I would've done better/differently if I had more time, and I still have to make it through my defense in two weeks --
but I turned in my dissertation last night, and dammit, whatever they think of it I'm still one step closer to my doctorate 😤
thanks to everyone who's been so incredibly sweet and supportive, it meant the world when I was in the "ugh why did I do this" parts of the process 🖤 you're the best and I'm grateful to know y'all 🥰
I've been driving with my dad all day heading to my folks' place for turkey break, and selfishly I was thinking about how the necromancers would be so incredibly proud of ME~ 🥹 a reader in the same situation, especially because I realized none of them really... did higher ed??? like:
- Maxi got his associates degree bc that was all he needed to get his funeral director apprenticeship in Louisiana, and Vincent wanted him to get back in the embalming room and completing his chain for the sake of the House as soon as possible and then Maxi killed Vincent and went through a 'homicidal violence for fun and profit' phase and never went back to get his own bachelors' degree
- Hector wound up leaving after his first semester or two of university in Mexico City bc he was still deeply fucked up over Rora and grieving was hellbent on completing his chain so he could get her back decided that traditional college wasn't for him in early twenties, and while he does well enough with his freelance photography now, he does kick himself every so often when he thinks about applying to more stable job with no bachelors degree to speak of and breaks out in a cold sweat
- Rora died her and Maxi's junior or senior year of high school, so I don't think she even has her diploma technically ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but for as much as she sneers about her parents grooming her to be a stereotypical southern belle, she does still have a bit of that ancient family money mentality of "I'll just do whatever and figure it out" and considers her taxidermy more her 'fuck you' money than making a living
- Seth was literally born on a farm in Kansas pre-Dust Bowl, his parents only sent him to the one-room schoolhouse until they felt he'd learned enough to run the farm himself and then they pulled him out to help harvest. and then by the time he had made his deal with They Who, he was so busy trying to curry their favor that he looked down on "mortal" education as a shallow endeavor (as much as he would probably actually enjoy it)
- By the time the University of Texas was even founded, Leon was already up to whatever shady shit he got involved with that eventually ended with him dead and vampire'd at the Battle of the Alamo a few years later. He's immortal, so he probably went back to actually see what all the fuss was about at multiple points, but each time he'd get so caught up in the music scene or the bar scene in Austin that he kept accidentally flunking out and eventually just decided to cut his losses
so while they wouldn't always understand the process or what your project was about precisely, they would all be incredibly supportive of you taking on your own grad school degree (whichever one you chose), but they'd see you even getting this far as a supremely big deal, as this was an accomplishment they didn't have (or had even really attempted) ✨
(and I've definitely thought about them at graduation, but I don't want to jinx myself lmao :'D)
anyway~ my defense is on december 5th, so I still need to prep for that. but this felt like it deserved a post!! :3
fingers crossed I find some time to get back on the October-ish Arc this break, we'll see 🖤