Why didn’t we all think of this?! According to Good Morning America (GMA), Eve Humphrey, a Florida Ph.D. student decided to have a maternity shoot to celebrate the birth of her new -- dissertation.
That’s right! After 6 years of labor and delivery, Humphrey finally pushed out her dissertation and anyone who has ever completed a thesis or dissertation can attest to the fact that it's that serious!
Humphrey would regularly refer to her dissertation as her baby. After 6 years in graduate school working through her doctorate program, she had all the symptoms of pregnancy. Lots of work, no sleep, weight gain from stress eating and back pain from being hunched over her computer all day. And if it acts like a baby and requires attention like a baby, its a baby, even if it is a dissertation.
Once she completed her program and turned in the culmination of 6 years of hard work towards her Ph.D. in Biology, she wanted to do something to commemorate the moment.
"I’m not super celebratory, but I wanted to do something that was fun," Humphrey told GMA. "Science can be very straightforward and I wanted to do something to commemorate what I did and take a moment to be proud of myself."
That’s when she decided to do a maternity shoot with her newborn baby, "Stress Response and Coloration as Mediators of Behavioral and Physiological Variation." The Florida State University student called up her friend Korie Mitchell and the two made doctoral magic happen. The pictures showed Humphrey posing with her paper next to its milestones, in a highchair and with a beautiful picturesque background as she gazes down lovingly. It was typical maternity shoot wonder.
Humphrey posted the pictures to Facebook with a caption that said, "Six years ago, I started on a journey and I didn’t know how hard it would be to finish. I gained weight, I experienced back pain, I cried a lot … was I pregnant? I had many restless nights and sacrificed time with family and friends to birth this crazy little baby of mine called a dissertation. So I would like to introduce you all to my creation, 6 years of pushing and it gave me a new name. Hi, I’m Dr. Eve Humphrey, PhD."
Before she knew it, the post had been shared over 10,000 times. Humphrey said she was taken aback when the post went viral.
"I was like, 'What the heck? My husband told me it had a ton of 'likes' and then it started being shared by people I didn’t know,” she said. Humphrey said she understands how a lot of people can relate or find humor in it. “I guess I get it, though, because that’s something I would crack up at and share."
Since the completion of her Ph.D and her new title as Doctor of Biology, Humphrey works at Syracuse University doing disciplined-based education research. She will be returning to Florida State in December to walk the stage at her graduation.
Congratulations Dr. Humphrey!
Photos Courtesy of Korie Mitchell/JessaCole Photography