G: the MA candidate

I've officially filed for candidacy for my Master's Degree in English! (We in the English dept. here call it the "MA on the way"--on the way to the PhD, that is). I'll hand in a draft of my thesis in a couple of weeks and will await my committee's response. Then I'll revise, polish and submit my thesis to my committee next quarter, and if all goes well, I'll submit it to the graduate studies folks with a bunch of signatures saying it passes muster. Then I get to graduate in June! Now, before we all get overly excited about this, I must say that I reserve the right to postpone until September if I simply can't get the thesis done on top of my regular class and teaching load. I'm also trying to not let this accomplishment take my attention too much away from the fact that as soon as Spring quarter ends, I will be turning my attention to studying for my preliminary exam (coming in December 2006), which is the gateway to officially being in dissertation writing mode. The PhD is a ways off yet but is looking more like a distant reality than a mirage as I finally get through the arduous years of coursework.