So here I am, facing the final hurdle in my thesis journey: the defence. I have been working on my thesis for months and now the time has come to prove its worth. I feel a mix of tension, excitement and a touch of fear. This is a moment we could call liminal.
Lineal, you say? No, liminal! What did that mean again? The word comes from the Latin word ‘limes’, which means boundary or threshold. Liminal refers to a kind of transition state. It is like the door post that marks the transition between indoors and outdoors. Another good example is puberty, a phase between being a child and being an adult, when it is difficult to define what you are exactly.
What if they ask a question I don’t know the answer to?
The defence of my thesis felt like a liminal experience. It formed the boundary between weeks of analysing, writing, revising and the final grade. I didn’t really have a good idea of what the defence would involve. How do you prepare for something like that? I went through my thesis a few more times, thought up questions I might get asked and prepared myself mentally for the task ahead. But even with that preparation, I had a gnawing sense of insecurity. What if they ask a question I don’t know the answer to?
Then the moment arrived, and the defence kicked off. Of course I was a little nervous, but the atmosphere was pretty friendly. I sat in a Leeuwenborch office with my two supervisors and the examiner. Some of the questions were tricky — actually, I can’t even remember them now — but I was able to come up with an answer to all of them. Then after half an hour of questions and comments, it was time for me to ‘go outside’.
In the end, those ten minutes form the boundary between passing and failing, a good grade and an OK grade
I was taken to another room to wait for my final grade. It felt weird that six months of work would be assessed in a ten-minute discussion between my supervisors and the examiner. In the end, those ten minutes form the boundary between passing and failing, a good grade and an OK grade. Look at it that way and those are the most important minutes of my Master’s. And what did I do in those ten crucial liminal minutes? Send some WhatsApp messages, check the news app, stare outside, check my phone again. In other words, I didn’t do anything special.
When the ten minutes were up, I was called back into the office. My supervisor told me the good news straight away: an 8.0! My thesis is completed.
Resource-student editor Maurice Schoo (24) is (was) a second-year master’s student of Development & Rural Innovation. He likes to cook, and he paints when he has the time.
