March 17

Just noticed that it’s March 17. For some it’s St. Patrick’s Day. For me it’s Dissertation Defense Day. 11 years ago today I defended.

If you’re not there yet, make a renewed push to do so, with energy and enthusiasm. Life looks a lot better afterwards. Letting it drag on for years creates poison; both you and others around you will suffer for it.

My defense went surprisingly well, given the circumstances. I was down in Kansas City for several days visiting my grandfather in the intensive care ward. It didn’t look like he was going to make it, and I wanted to see him one more time. (He eventually recovered somewhat and lived for another 5 years, but that hardly seemed possible at the time.)

I was supposed to fly back to Chicago on the night of the 16th, since my defense was scheduled for the next morning. But the fuel nozzle on the plane jammed open and we weren’t allowed to leave.

Postponing the defense was not an option. One of my committee members was Niklaus Largier (author of In Praise of the Whip, and now in German at Berkeley). He was departing for Europe on sabbatical a few days later (and in the end he never taught another class at DePaul anyway). And you can’t just add new committee members without a little bit of warning.

This left me thinking that I might have to rent a car and drive overnight from Kansas City to Chicago, which could have taken close to 10 hours. Luckily, the plane was somehow fixed, and we arrived in Chicago only a few hours late.

I think I got some sleep that night. I also managed to write a fairly long statement, which looking back on it was remarkably cranky and defensive. (Graduate school was stressful, I thought.) But the defense went well; it was a nice conversation.