It Is Finished

(Envelopes waiting for us in the department office two weeks ago, when our drafts were due to the department. Each honors candidate had their own envelope and once we filled our envelope, we could pick up a jar of Miracle Bubbles with our initials on it and blow them to our heart's delight.)

The idea first came in my sophomore year. Before I even met Riles, I started toying with the idea of getting a Freeman and going to Chinar. I met her in the spring, in her course on research methods. And so we plotted and planned and I read up on Chinar. The rest, they say, is history. I came back from Chinar this summer, weary, but ready to write, write, write. And read, read, read. And struggle, struggle, struggle. Somehow, all the pieces fell together. The department has read it, I have given my defense, the recommendations have been made, the pages formatted then reformatted then reformatted again (never have I been so full of rage toward a librarian until the past two days) and I have officially turned in my copy of my honors thesis to the college library.

I know that this is small and certainly hope that this will not be the most significant thing I will ever write, but it was still a great moment today, when the librarian finally shook my hand and congratulated me on finishing the nearly three-year journey. Thanks for everything, Riles.