Let’s Just Call This “Doctoral Day,” OK?

National Blog Posting Month – February 2013 – Love

Prompt – How do you feel about Valentine’s Day?

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When I was a kid, Valentine’s Day was totally my favorite holiday. I loved all the hearts and the expressing of love. I had my crushes (remember Indiana Jones?), and could spend all day thinking about them.

As I got older, I got a little jaded about Valentine’s Day. I never had a boyfriend. Or if I did, they wouldn’t do anything special for the holiday. Usually they’d forget. I got through high school, college, and graduate school feeling more and more removed from Valentine’s Day and the entire concept of love. Sure, I’d had a few boyfriends over the years, but I still hadn’t met ‘the one.’

In 2000 as I prepared to defend my Ph.D. dissertation, I realized that it was a possibility for me to do the defense on Valentine’s Day. I jumped on the chance. This, I thought, would finally give me something to celebrate on the 14th of February. That’s exactly what I did.

That day, I dyed my hair bright red. I donned all black clothes. I went into the gauntlet. Somehow, I emerged victorious, despite the fact that I couldn’t actually answer any of the questions asked of me by my committee. But I won! They signed off! I had my Ph.D.! (OK, really, I had a bunch of revisions to do, but still, I was basically finished.)

In November of 2000 I did finally meet the guy I ultimately married. You might think, then, that my opinion of Valentine’s Day has changed. Well it hasn’t. He forgets. Or does the usual guy thing of buying the card on the way home from work. That’s OK. I’m over it. To me, February 14th is Doctoral Day. And I still have cause to celebrate.

For 2-14-13