With the End in Sight.......

The end, dear friends, is in sight.
In less than one week, I will turn in my dissertation.
In less than one month, I will have defended.
In less than two months, I will have graduated.

Sigh.

There are many things I've learned along the way:
1.  Having a writing partner or a partner for any task is integral to its completion.
2.  Sharing interests with said partner, like black jelly beans, is a bonus.
3.  We all have our own "junk" that we have to mediate in order to complete a project.
4.  Comparing yourself to anyone else is, frankly, stupid.
5.  You will piss off a lot of people along the way.
6.  Said people can be apologized to, and, if they really care about you, will forgive you.
7.  You may lose friendships along the way.
8.  Your family will constantly ask when your "paper" is going to be done.
9.  You will love your family even though they have absolutely no concept of what it is like to do a project of this magnitude.
10.  You will never want to write about or really research this topic again.
11.  You will have countless "interesting" coffee shop experiences that must be chronicled.
12.  One of these experiences will be overhearing a 70 year old man tell his "date" that he'd like a blow job as repayment for paying for lunch.

More later.  Chapters beckon.