Ping passed!!!

All the fear of having to use the unforbidden "I don't know", the waking up in the middle of the night thinking Ping is late for her prelim, the frequent wondering of how can Ping convey her understanding and knowledge to her committee members...it's over! Ping finally did her prelim on Friday, Nov. 10th, definitely an auspicious day now *grins*.

The best feeling was the relief that comes with the announcement "Congratulations, you passed". It was a simple sentence, nothing official but it's the best news for the past few months! All the while, during the writing period, the hardest for Ping was not to just go to the bench and do an experiment when Ping thought of something...there's always another experiment that needs to be done. Now Ping can concentrate on bench work again!!

Just after Ping got out from the closed-questioning session, the lab had bought Ping champagne and Ping had her name go into the history of Schmidt lab!!
It is a lab tradition that whenever someone passed their prelim or graduate, we would pop open a bottle of champagne and let the cork hit the ceiling tile. And Ping's name is now on the ceiling too!!