The senior thesis had a deadline of April.
Eight months away when Holt announced it in September. Close enough to be real, far enough to be dangerous — the kind of timeline that rewarded consistent work and punished the assumption that there was time.
I had been working on it since January without knowing it was a thesis.
That was the advantage.
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Holt scheduled individual meetings the third week of September.
Thirty minutes each. Progress check, direction alignment, the kind of conversation that separated students who had thought about their project from students who had thought about thinking about it.
I brought the field study, the published collaborative piece, and an outline.
She read the outline while I sat across from her.
When she looked up her expression was the efficie
