On The End of Course Work

It wasn't until just the last few weeks that it suddenly struck me--this isn't just the end of my PhD course work; this is the end of course work, period.  I was not psychologically prepared for that.

For as long as I've been in school, it was always with the assumption that there was more class after.  Pre-school was prep for Kindergarten, which was prep for 1st grade, then 2nd, then 3rd, etc and etc.  When I graduated High School, amidst all the fanfare and celebration, it was...