Cheerleader Time! DEFENSE!!!

Tracy is so darn close to being done! He has one more revision of his thesis, and he plans to defend on October 7. (Sidenote: I hate that it is a called a defense. Are they attacking him? Are they shooting arrows at him? I suppose they could shoot figurative arrows of academic skepticism at him, but to my understanding, a defense entails more of a discussion between academic peers. If ever a word would evoke terror in graduate students' minds and hearts, it is defense. Sidenote over.)

Because Tracy already has a job waiting for him after graduation, he feels pretty motivated already to finish his thesis as soon as he can. But I wanted to give him some sugary energy and a fun message from me to cheer him on.

In case you can't read the sign or the labels on the candy, the message says, "Hey Tracy, It's CRUNCH time!! Pull out all your TWIX and push to PAYDAY. Our joyful SNICKERS later will make your 100 GRAND effort worth it!" The Reese's honestly doesn't fit into a sentence. I just stuck in on there at the end because it is his favorite candy. I suppose I could have done something with the "King Size" part, but oh well.

Some have asked whether he has taken advantage of my editing skills, and the answer is NO. I only looked over one grant proposal a little over a year ago. Otherwise, I have not read one page of his text. I have helped PhD candidates in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, marketing, animal science, etc. with improving journal articles and their theses or dissertations. So why have I not helped Tracy with his thesis, you ask? In geology, every other word is jargon and almost every sentence appears in the passive voice. In the past, Tracy took 10 minutes to explain one paragraph to me without using field-specific terminology so I could understand the concept. That fact alone makes that process pretty painful. So he has opted to revise it a million times on his own with his adviser. He hasn't asked me to look at it, so I'll just cheer him on and be there however I can if and when he needs me.

Cheer with me: DEFENSE!! (clap, clap) DEFENSE!! (clap, clap)