Make Sure You Don't Go Get Your Nails Did!

Yeah, so at about 5:25am I was awakened by the sound of my brain rattling off an outline for my answer to a section of the exam. Rewind about 9 hours and I was literally forcing myself to conjure up words that I could hopefully type with the one eye that was barely opened. If you would have asked me a week ago, I would not have even been able to begin to imagine what this experience was going to be like.

In effort to get the inside scoop, my cohort member and I sent emails to our professors and spoke with more advanced students about their experiences, enlisting their advice for how to prepare. In one particular email that we got back from a Professor, she literally advised us not to think that we could do this exam while talking on the phone, getting our hair and nails done, or going to the grocery store. My classmate and I nearly keeled over in laughter; did she really think that she needed to advise us, PhD students, not to think that we could go get our nails done while taking the qualifying exams? Really?

Well, I have a confession. Yesterday, in the midst of the third leg of this 7-day race, my body literally shut DOWN! I could not think, could not eat, and truly wanted to escape from the walls of confinement that I'd been a prisoner to for over 72 hours. I really wanted to run to the nearest nail salon and get away from the madness. At the thought, I burst into laughter. It really happened. In my mini-psychotic break the idea of going to the nail shop actually entered my mind; and then I thought, good thing I was warned against giving in to that temptation!

Well, for the rest of the day yesterday I really struggled. I could barely get it together to read the questions off of the page, let alone answer them. But I tried to stick with it, until about 12am when my body literally said: NO MORE!

And here I am, awake before 6am, bursting with ideas of how to thoroughly finish the section of the exam that had taunted me...I chose to blog instead of go straight to work, though! I needed to just talk to somebody!

It's officially 6:10am on Day 4! I will go back to bed until about 7:30am, but I have safely stored my outline in my blackberry so that when I'm fully energized I can get back on my game. Two more sections to go!

All I can say is Lawd, have mercy...no, really, please...have mercy!

P.S. Dr. Smith, as SOON as I hand in this exam, I'm gone get me a pedicure!