Four presentations in four weeks. It's been a public speaking marathon, which is similar to a food poisoning marathon, but without the bodily fluids.

I have been told by no fewer than two of my supervisors, which was the number of them present at my CoC, that I "actually speak very well." They seemed surprised, though not half as surprised as I was to hear it.

It came as a great shock to me. A Great Shock, because I have never in my life been told that I speak well. Incoherently, yes. Nervously, yes. Quietly, more times than I can count. Never well.

If only my second grade teacher - the one who insisted that my best friend and I be put into separate classes because I was too shy - could have heard that. Or my third grade teacher, who threatened to make me use a microphone if I didn't speak louder. Or the babysitter who thought I was mute.

I'm still not convinced it wasn't a fluke. A momentary lapse in personality. But fluke or divine intervention, I've passed my CoC with no revisions! I'm now a confirmed PhD candidate. When I told my parents, they wrote back and said something along the line of "Great. So now all you have to do is do the research, draw your conclusions, write it up and publish it, right?"

Right.