A reassuring dissertation defense

Today was SS's dissertation defense, and it went very smoothly. It was reassuring to witness such a nice, friendly process. First she did a 25-minute presentation of her research. Then the four committee people asked questions, which in this case were mostly queries about ways she might choose to extend this line of research in the future. Then the audience was invited to ask questions. One did - she had another suggestion on another direction to take it. There were only four of us in the audience: me and AT (G's other advisees), a woman I don't know, and SS's husband. All but the committee then left the room for about 10 minutes, for the deliberations, then our advisor came out to find Dr. S, and it was done! SS has already landed a tenure-track job, too, in this market, which is fantastic.

SS did her research on the relationship of materialism, in the sense of being materialistic, and psychosocial maladjustment. She certainly had a lot of very nice slides for presenting her statistics, and her style of answering questions was impressive - she was comfortable saying when she didn't understand what was being asked, or what the person was suggesting, and even in asking the committee members for their own ideas. I hope that in a similar situation, I would also have the strength and poise to be vulnerable.