"just six more months..."
"Time alone - oh, time will tell: ya think you're in heaven, but ya living in hell."
- Bob Marley, Time will Tell
So the news is this: I will not be graduating in December.
Members of my committee feel that I could stand to repeat two of my experiments by expanding the number of treatments, and by increasing the number of repetitions within those experiments. I will collect data on these experiments for another two months, which will put me two weeks from the departmental deadline for thesis defense, and it is extremely unlikely that I would be able to complete my analysis and writing while dealing with the obstacles of bureaucracy at the University of Florida. As such, I will most probably defend in January, and graduate in May of next year.
I am of mixed feelings on this subject.
While I rather wish that they had reached these conclusions before approving and endorsing the experiments in the first place so that I would do it right the first time, this is also the first time in two years that I have had clear objectives and a deadline. I know exactly what I need to do in order to finish.