I'm....graduating?

Not yet. Don't get ahead of yourself.

Anyway, I had a run-of-the-mill meeting today with our graduate coordinator about the things I need to do to get my graduate project underway. After a little discussion and me proving information about my topic and what I would like to look at for my project, I received the information I needed. Not only that, I walked away from the meeting with a committee chair set in place, names of two other people to contact to be on my committee, and an expected graduation date of December 2008. Holy crap! I expected it to take a lot longer than that, but my "chair" told me he firmly believes that I can complete everything by October, to defend my project in November, and graduate in December. Not only that, he told me he would love to see my project published and that he is confident that my project will get that far.

It's funny because I remember starting grad school in the fall of 2006 thinking this whole thing is a popularity contest and it would not be fun, in the slightest. But now that things are starting to come together and I'm starting to see the end, it's kind of fun to see that the graduate faculty are looking at my ideas and projects as something worthwhile, worth pursuing, and worthy of publishing....even without seeing any sort of outline for my topic. It's honestly nice to know that my "chair" is confident enough in me to tell me these things with minimal information.

That's all, really. I'm just really excited to have a start on things and to know that I am fully supported.