Thesis Defense: Check!

I feel like I was counting down forever until the day of my thesis defense. I remember saying at the beginning of the semester: only 4 months until I defend! Aaaah! Then in August: 3 months left, I hope I'm ready. Then in September: wow, I can't believe there are only 2 months left... it's getting close; I'm getting nervous. Then in October: 1 month aaaah! Start practicing. Then... three weeks, two weeks, one week, bam! Thursday the 11th, 6pm. I begin, I speak, I defend, and then... it's over. All that time spend preparing, practicing, being nervous and before I knew it, almost as if I was on auto-pilot, it was over. A year and a half worth of work presented and defended in 50 minutes. And I kicked butt. Or at least that is what they told me. To be honest, I hardly remember it. I remember the first question, but from there nothing. I remember thinking when I arrived at the last part of my presentation, the conclusions: wow, that was quick, I hope I didn't speak to fast, was that really 23 minutes like I'd practiced it? Truth is, we spend so much time stressing and being nervous for something that will signify an end, in this case the end of a Master's degree in Translation, and what it all boils down to is 50 minutes of our lives.

And then it was over and I was left thinking: how anti-climatic. Now what? I have a week left of classes, final papers and final exams, but nothing holds the same weight to me anymore. I conquered my thesis defense. I defended my work with pride. What difference does a 5 minute oral exam in a Simultaneous Interpreting class really make? A week left of classes and its out into the real world, to once again begin fighting for my place in society. Isn't it strange, how it turns out that change really isn't that different after all?

Mommy came to visit me this past week. It was Mom's first time down in Costa Rica; she came down for my defense and we spent the week together doing touristy things. We went to the museums in San Jose, and drove up a very bad road to Poas volcano, only to see... clouds. And we went on the Cafe Britt coffee tour: definitely the highlight of her trip. Free coffee always makes me happy ;-). Mommy got to meet my old host family after so many years, she got to meet Rolito and his parents, and I finally got to show her the country that I love so much, my home away from home. My heart.

And now, as this chapter is closing in my life I get the exciting job of writing the next one. A job? A family? A new car? A new city? Not knowing the future is scary but exciting. Its like a suspense movie, a thriller. I don't know whether to cover my eyes with my fingers or clutch the hand beside me, my heart is racing as I try to predict what happens next. But we can never really know, because there is always a twist.