THE NARRATIVE ARC
How Eminem Helped Me Raise Two Million Dollars
The best presentations are vulnerable
The final stretch of wrapping up research, writing a dissertation, and preparing for my defense was taking its toll. Some weeks, I had so much work that I didn’t leave the lab for two to three days. The children and their mom would bring a meal, we’d visit a bit, and I’d get back at it.
In the Spring of 2009, I took a rare moment to rest during the home stretch of completing my Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) The journey to go from Mr. DiMeo to Dr. DiMeo had been going for nine years, longer than usual. In that time, I had managed to work full-time, buy my first home, start my first marriage, and raise two children.
The dissertation defense is a nerve-racking forty-five-minute presentation to an open audience, followed by questions. At the end of the public session, everyone is excused from the room, but for the tenured faculty (the academic top brass). The defending begins as professors challenge the validity of the dissertation.
For years, I was part of the public waiting outside the room for what seemed an hour. Friends would eventually emerge, still noticeably sweating, delighted to be greeted by their classmates and family with a hearty, “Congratulations, Doctor!”
