I PASSED THE LITERATURE SEMINAR!!!

This semester will go down in the record books as one of the hardest of my college career so far. Nothing instills as much fear into the heart of a first year PhD student as the first step to candidacy such as your second year seminar that you're doing as a first year:

Terrifying, right? Well, terror was the main emotion that I was feeling when a classmate sent me the screenshot.
To enter into candidacy at my school, we have to do three things:
1. Pass all of your classes
2. Pass your literature seminar
3. Pass the oral defense of your dissertation research plan.
Well, as of last Friday, I am done with a third of the criteria to enter into candidacy. If you ask any of my classmates, I've been a mess for the past month getting ready for this thing. So amidst pictures of supernovae, a couple of public speaking flubs, and one unanswerable question, I completed and passed my literature seminar. Huzzah!
Unfortunately, I have to get through the next ten days to know if I have passed all of my classes. Let's hope that my nuclear chemistry grade is high enough to offset the outcome of the second half of quantum mechanics. I'm planning on updating my blog as soon as classes are over, but until then, enjoy a picture of a lovely Type II supernova.

Oh, and one more awesome piece of news. My funding survived the budget cuts so Chicago is still a go! I make the official move at the end of July!