At UC Berkeley, when you file your PhD dissertation and everything is accepted—your committee signs off on the science; the administration confirms that your margins are the correct size—you get a lollipop.
I assume at some point you also get a diploma, but no one ever talks about that. Everyone just wants the lollipop.
If you had a lollipop that had taken you six years to earn, would you save it or eat it?
Tough Little Birds 
Congratulations! Whatever you do with your PhD, I hope you find it rewarding. I have enjoyed your posts–thank you. –Linda Z., southern Oregon
I would save it for a rainy day . . . they keep pretty well, I think! :-)
Congratulations! I’m betting you are going to have a brilliant career. As far as the lollipop…that’s a tough one. I have never been one to save memorabilia, so I’d probably eat it and just save the wrapper. Or at least take a little bite.
That’s what I ended up doing. I’d seen a lot of grad students *not* eat theirs, so I wanted to seize the moment :-)
Let me get this straight, this understated little post is saying you have just been awarded your PhD? Or have you still a viva or something to do? Is it premature to congratulate you?
Yep, I got my PhD. (I also considered titling this post “Everything I say is smart now.”)
Hi Kate
I just wanted to offer my congratulations. It is a brilliant achievement. I have followed and enjoyed your blog through your doctoral work. You have a talent for explaining science well which is a mark of a good scientist in my view.
I wish you well for future work.
Best wishes
Neil
Congratulations! And I’d eat it (and save the wrapping in a scrapbook) — it’ll be the best and sweetest one you’ll ever taste!
What a great reward for all those years! Whether eating or saving it, I would make sure to savour it! What a feeling.
Awesome!! I hope you felt joy after your defense – that is sweeter than the lollipop, I think. Thank you for such a fun blog. I volunteer to care for baby birds in our local wildlife rehab center, and reading your posts has enhanced my knowledge and practice.
Thanks for your comment! I recently started volunteering at a wildlife rehab center, and it’s been great fun learning all these very practical details – what do you feed an opossum? What if that opossum just had jaw surgery? – that somehow don’t come up in evolutionary biology papers. I’ve been so impressed by the expertise of the volunteers who have been there longer than me; some have been there longer than I’ve been alive, these small, gray-haired ladies confidently restraining and medicating angry owls. It puts the PhD in perspective: sure, it took me 6 years, but look where you can get with 3 decades of practice!