Last Wednesday was a very important day for me. It was the MA defense for one of my best and lifelong friends. I had to wake up early to be able to be with her before it started. The details of these days are definitely very important to the person who will be asked to defend their thesis… a bit like preparing for an engagement ceremony or a wedding. Just like any ceremony, once it starts, everyone tries to take photos. There are always side situations that occur and stress when the event begins. As much as there were so many funny situations, the whole event was so touching and very beautiful. I will never forget when she was reciting the introduction and was moved and cried when she was thanking her family for their support. It is common on that day that the MA holder-to-be will listen to a lot of criticism but will eventually take the degree anyway since they have reached the stage already. However, when the professors stood up at the end, after three hours of criticizing and comments on the thesis, we got this feeling of a countdown, as if we were waiting for them to verbalize the decree. After three hours of talk in a specialization which the majority of the audience had no idea about and was only waiting for that final scene, at last, the moment that all of us were waiting for had come. The jury committee stood up, and we all stood up too to listen to the result. My friend got her degree… and her father started to weep… and we were all clapping and over the moon. Despite all the effort, worries, and stress throughout all these years, the joy of success or reaching and finalizing a goal has another taste of its own. That kind of joy that Abdel-Halim expressed when he said in his famous song, “There is no one happier in the world than someone who is happy with his success.” The song was playing in my head while we were taking photos and celebrating after she got her degree. If only we could play it as background music just like at any other occasion. But who knows! It may happen that, one day, the traditions and protocols of such [academic] occasions change to allow something like this to happen.