Finally

Oddly enough, I suddenly found myself thinking of the result of my qualifying exam this Tuesday morning. Before I went home at 11 am, I checked my mailbox to see if the result was out. Nothing. Just some letters and some forms I needed to fill up.

In hindsight, it wasn't probably odd to think about it. I was expecting the result to come out this week anyway.

When my roommate Jose came home at 6:30 pm, the first thing he said was "So, any good news?" "About what?" I replied. He said, "about the qualifying exams. They came out this afternoon." I told him I had no idea since I went home before lunch. I'll just check it tomorrow since I have to finish preparing for my Wednesday lecture.

Nah.

I took the first available bus to school, thinking the two minute wait for the 3B Northwestern bus to be too long a wait. It afforded me the chance to look back at all the things I gave up preparing for this, and all the frustration that came with it. Of the Christmases and New Years not fully enjoyed, since the knife hanging over my head constantly reminded me that I should be studying, despite the imposition of 24 hour study breaks which only at best alleviated my worries partially. Of vacations spent in the Philippines which, while fully enjoyed, never erased the fact that I still had major exams to take. These were just exams, but on them depended whether I could "upgrade" myself from being a master's student to a doctoral student. On this depended whether I could change my student classification in time for applying for a new student visa this May. Failing the exam would mean for me not going home to the Philippines this summer.

December 2005, I passed Probability but failed Algebra. August 2006 I took only Complex Analysis and passed it (I even had to pay PhP10,000+ to change my return flight to the US so I could take this exam). December 2006 I finally passed Algebra but failed Real Analysis. At this point, I've passed three. I only needed to pass Real Analysis. No worries - students have three attempts at each exam.

I went back earlier - July 2007 - to the US so I could review for Real Analysis, which I failed (a second time) August 2007. I was down to my last chance. I can't afford any mistakes anymore, and I had to study like I've never studied before. I went through bouts of extreme sadness in the process, thinking if I was good enough.

Fast forward to this evening.

On behalf of the Graduate Committee it is my pleasure to congratulate you for satisfactorily completing the Qualifying Examinations in the January 2008 Qualifier Exam Session.

The next step in your academic program is to satisfy the foreign language requirement and take the Advanced Topics Examination. This examination should be taken within a year and a half from now.

Once again, congratulations on this achievement. Please feel free to come see me if you have any questions or to discuss your plans.

My students are going to have an easy quiz tomorrow.