Hi everyone! I have a lot of messages to respond to and honestly very few brain cells left with which to do it, but I wanted to take a moment to send out some heartfelt special thanks to a few of the people who made yesterday incredible, and who made me feel so loved.

Thank you to @tartecosplay, @fae2day, @shadowsnstuff, Andy, @m42sc_cosplay, @pkiove, and @veryvasilisk for throwing me such a stunning ACNH party that I must've cried three times with sheer joy. Your creativity and generosity (!!) with robots and flowers is an incredible marvel.

Thank you to @007honeybadger for SNEAKILY coordinating a flower delivery with my dad, so I walked up the stairs after my defense to a full flower bouquet in Decepticon colors!! With a balloon that would've applied if I passed or failed and made me laugh like a drunk hyena.

Thank you to @emm_elou and Jeff for baking me homemade goods, and thank you especially to Emmy who made gluten-free cookies (that are still delicious!!!) and who drove alllllll the way to my dad's house to hand them off and have a socially distance chat in the rain.

Thank you to @vixorien, who sent me a gift to open post-defense: the annotated scripts for two of my favorite MTMTE issues, signed by @jroberts332! I've gained a lot of emotional support from Chris and these robots over the PhD, so Chris, I'm glad to say: we achieved something!

And finally to you, reading this. There's no way I could have gotten an engineering MS & PhD in 3 years without the support from my incredible battalion of friends. Y'all have encouraged and inspired me to always be pushing harder and doing more, and this is your victory, too