The End of the Road: I got my MA degree!

It’s the end of the road for me. For my master’s that is. This is a tad late but a little over a month ago, I defended my thesis, via Skype, with flying colors (as they say). When I ended that Skype video conference, I officially graduated from my master’s courses and requirements. Nothing elaborate: no rites, no parties, no dressing up. Just in my casual clothes, surrounded by my two best buddies and my family.

I cancelled my evening class that Thursday afternoon in preparation for what would be my thesis defense at 9:30pm, Manila time. My friends came over an hour earlier with dinner. I had everything set up minutes ahead of time. We enjoyed the fast food they generously brought for us to munch on while we wait for that epic Skype tone. To kill time, I scanned through my thesis once again while they quietly watch Youtube videos. Entre temps, we also tested my presentation that I was to share while I go through fifteen minutes of explanation.

Then, right in time, my adviser called me. And it was on for the rest of the hour. I left my fate be decided by our intermittent internet connection. Fifteen minutes went by swiftly. Before I knew it, my adviser and jury were giving their comments about my work.

I dominated our home internet connection. My poor friends had nothing to do but sit through excruciating silence, listening to me speaking in what must have been gibberish for them. My father and sister came while I was in the middle of it all. At one point, my sister made her way to the fridge to put the cakes my father brought. She was unfortunately spotted on the camera but nothing to worry about, my professors were cool about it. They even cracked a joke about it: “Victory party preparation is on its way? Too bad we aren’t there to share the feast!”

My sister and father went to bed before I could finish. When our exchange was over, my professors asked to cut the mic so they could deliberate. I muted my mic from my end to reassure my friends who were sitting quietly, trying to entertain themselves by taking photos and communicating by body language.

In no time, my professor caught my attention by turning her mic on. They asked if I would like to call my entourage to be part of the announcement. Unfortunately, my sister and father were already sound asleep. I asked my two cherished friends to stand behind me, even if they couldn’t hear, nor would they even be able to understand, what was being announced. With all of us ready, my adviser proudly announced that I made it : I passed my thesis defense and am therefore a titulaire du diplôme Master en Linguistique, Diffusion du français, parcours professionnel.

Then the screen froze.

Panicked, I turned my attention to the router. Putain, I lost the internet connection. I reset the router and tried my best to get back online. I found them still online and saw that they left me a recorded video. Before I was able to view it, I called my professors back to apologize.

It was quite anti-climactic but right before the connection was cut, my adviser was just about to announce that with all my grades combined, I managed to grab the title mention bien (equivalent to the latin honor : magna cum laude).

With that, we exchanged a few more pleasantries and bid each other farewell.

It has been quite a journey. I don’t even know how to begin thanking people who helped. I’ll get into that in another time.

More than a month later... I still can’t believe that I got over that hurdle. I probably need more time to process it all. But to get the ball rolling, if you’re reading this, it must be because you have been with me throughout this journey of mine and so I thank YOU.