© 2007 ktownlowdown

Words I Never Expected to Hear

I received a call last week from someone I didn’t know.  He introduced himself and made the following statement which I had never heard before and venture a guess, that I will never hear again…

He said, “I read your thesis and was wondering if I could ask you some questions?”

Maybe I could expect this if my thesis was remotely interesting to the general public, but this is it

Not exactly a page turner.

Well it turns out that this gentleman’s daughter was doing a science project of some iron artifacts and antiques they had found on their property and he wanted to ask an “expert.”  Well I BS’ed my way through most of his questions (it’s hard to remember that stuff three years later) just like I did during my defense.

Anyway, it’s not every day that someone reads your thesis…I hope I got all my facts and figure correct…I’d hate for his daughter to fail her project.

  • Todd
    Just read your thesis..Stirring stuff in there. The highs and lows, what a literary roller coaster you take us on..Bravo my brother.

    I love the part that discusses the debate that still rages on today as far as the entrepreneurial tradition is concerned and whether that gave way to shoddy bridges. Stirring!!

    All joking aside, I am proud of you.
  • Grandpa Larlee
    Wow, I didn't know you even wrote a thesis. I just finished reading it and hope I can get a bound and autographed copy, which I plan to sell on EBay and make a lot of money.

    When it came time for my oral exam I was scheduled to meet with my thesis advisors for about an hour. The first reader asked me a question and I started to answer when the second reader jumped in and began giving the answer - he then went on for 45 minutes and I finally got to answer a couple of puff questions and passed my orals with flying colors.

    When people asked me how it went I told them it was grueling and mentally exhausting. I told fellow students to prepare for the worse - well I didn't want them to know I had skated thru.

    Now the truth is out and if I need to surrender my master's degree so be it. It was about as relevant to life and life's work as your history of cast iron in bridge building.
blog comments powered by Disqus