Finally! I Did It: Completing my MBA at Middle East Technical University

On July 14, 2026, I successfully defended my thesis for my MBA at Middle East Technical University.

At the time, I thought that was the finish line.

It turns out the finish line had several more forms, a registration number I had never been given, multiple signatures, formatting requirements, uploads, approvals, and what felt like an obstacle course designed by someone who really, really enjoys bureaucracy.

But on August 12, 2026, I logged into the student portal and saw one word:

Graduated.

And I ugly cried for two hours.

Not delicate, cinematic tears quietly rolling down my cheeks. Nope. Full-on, three-years-of-stress-leaving-my-body ugly crying.

Because suddenly it was real.

I did it.

The 30 Days After the Defense

After successfully defending my thesis, I had 30 days to make the required modifications, complete the final submission process, and get everything approved.

At first, that sounded perfectly manageable.

And honestly, the modifications themselves were not the problem. I knew what changes needed to be made, and I could make them. After everything that had gone into researching and writing the thesis, revising a few sections was hardly the part that was going to break me.

The bureaucracy, however, had other plans.

There were formatting requirements, forms, signatures, registrations, uploads, approvals, and instructions that occasionally seemed to assume I already knew about steps no one had ever mentioned.

At one point, I discovered that I needed to register my thesis using a number I had never received.

A number I did not know existed.

A number I did not know I needed.

This felt very on-brand for my experience with bureaucracy in Türkiye.

Apparently, graduate school has a secret final exam called “Locate the Number Nobody Told You About.”

As the 30-day deadline moved closer, the pressure grew. The thesis itself was finished, but finishing the degree depended on completing every administrative step correctly and on time.

That distinction became very important.

I was no longer worried about whether I could write the thesis.

I was worried that, after doing all of that work, some form, signature, registration number, formatting requirement, or upload might stop me at the finish line.

Day 30

By August 12—Day 30—I had made the required revisions and completed everything that was within my control.

Almost.

I was still waiting for the final signature on my thesis.

While I waited, my friends in the International Students Office stepped in to help me navigate the remaining pieces. They helped me register for the missing number I had never been given and guided me through uploading my thesis to the relevant sites.

Their help meant more to me than I can adequately express. At a point when I was exhausted, stressed, and terrified that I might overlook something important, I had people beside me who knew the system and were willing to help me through it.

That has been one of the recurring gifts of my experience at METU. Whenever I have felt completely lost, someone has appeared to help me find the next step.

By then, there was nothing left for me to rewrite or fix. I had done what I could do.

I just had to wait.

That may have been the hardest part.

For weeks, I had been operating in a constant state of vigilance, convinced that one missing detail could still derail everything. I had spent so long looking for the next problem to solve that I did not quite know how to trust that there were no more problems.

And somehow, after 30 days of revisions, paperwork, signatures, registrations, uploads, questions, and a considerable amount of stress, I reached the finish line. There was nothing more I could do but go home and wait.

It was only a couple hours later that I checked my student portal. My status had changed.

Graduated.

Something in me finally let go.

The tears were not really about a word on a screen. They were about the fear, pressure, exhaustion, uncertainty, and determination that had accumulated over the previous three years.

For so long, there had always been another requirement waiting: something to complete, solve, submit, survive, or worry about.

There wasn’t anymore.

I had reached the finish line.

Three Years Leading to This Moment

When I arrived in Türkiye in September 2023, I brought nine checked bags, two cats, and I had absolutely no idea what the next three years would ask of me.

Four days later, I began my MBA at Middle East Technical University. I have written before about what it felt like to arrive at METU as an older international student, wondering whether I would fit in and whether I had completely lost my mind by taking on graduate school in a new country.

I was 43 years old, living in a new country, navigating a new culture, trying to learn a new language, and beginning graduate school at one of Türkiye’s most respected universities.

Some of those academic struggles became their own chapter in this journey. Earlier in the program, I wrote about having to regroup after a difficult semester, recover academically, and finally begin the thesis process that would eventually bring me here.

There were also friendships, accomplishments, moments of discovery, and a growing sense that Ankara and METU were becoming part of my story. Somewhere along the way, METU stopped feeling like simply the university I attended and became one of the places that helped me understand Türkiye a little better.

And then there was the thesis.

My research explored the experiences of vegans living in Türkiye—their motivations, challenges, identities, relationships, and experiences navigating a predominantly non-vegan culture. Sixteen people trusted me with their stories, and those interviews became the heart of the work I would spend months analyzing and writing about.

Living as a vegan in Türkiye had already shown me how complicated the intersection of personal values, culture, tradition, and belonging can be. I had written about some of those tensions before, particularly while navigating traditions such as Kurban Bayramı as both a vegan and someone who genuinely wants to understand and respect the culture around me.

I transcribed interviews. I coded data. I analyzed themes. I rewrote chapters. I questioned my methodology and my findings.

I questioned commas.

At various points, I may have questioned reality itself.

But somehow, page by page and problem by problem, the thesis became a finished piece of research.

And eventually, I stood in front of my committee and defended it.

Completing My MBA at METU

I can say this now without hesitation:

Completing my MBA at Middle East Technical University is the most difficult thing I have ever done.

Not because every assignment was impossibly hard or every class was miserable. And certainly not because my experience at METU was negative. Quite the opposite. I love this university, and I am deeply grateful for the professors, classmates, friends, and community who became part of my life here.

It was difficult because I was doing all of it while rebuilding my life.

I had moved across the world and started over. Along the way, I was not only learning how to survive graduate school; I was learning how to communicate, belong, and build a life in Türkiye—sometimes one new Turkish expression at a time. I was also managing bureaucracy, uncertainty, loneliness, setbacks, and all the ordinary complications of being human.

Some days I showed up confidently, feeling like I knew exactly what I was doing. Other days, I was exhausted, overwhelmed, running on coffee, or trying to accomplish what needed to be done while fighting back tears. There were probably a few days when I managed all of those things at once.

But the important part is that I kept going.

That is what I am most proud of.

The Fear I Didn’t Realize I was Carrying

I do not think I understood how afraid I had been of failing until it was finally over.

For three years, there was always another hurdle ahead: another semester, exam, paper, presentation, thesis chapter, revision, or administrative requirement. I became so accustomed to focusing on the next thing that I rarely allowed myself to think about what reaching the end might actually feel like.

Somewhere beneath all that determination was the fear that I wouldn’t get there.

I had taken an enormous leap by moving halfway around the world and beginning an MBA in my forties. What if, after everything it had taken to get here, I couldn’t finish?

August 12 answered that question.

I had finished.

I Did It

There is a version of me from September 2023 that I wish I could talk to right now.

She is exhausted from traveling, surrounded by nine bags, with two confused cats nearby. She has just moved to Ankara and is about to begin an MBA in a country where she barely speaks the language.

She is excited and terrified, and she has absolutely no idea what the next three years will bring.

I would tell her that some of it is going to be harder than she expects. She is going to struggle, cry, question her decisions, and encounter situations she never could have planned for.

But I would also tell her not to underestimate herself.

Keep going.

One day, nearly three years later, you are going to look at your student portal and finally understand what all of those ordinary, difficult days added up to.

You did not give up.

You made it.

I am an MBA graduate of Middle East Technical University.

Even typing that feels surreal.

For the first time in three years, there is no exam to prepare for, no thesis chapter waiting for revisions, no defense presentation to practice, and no mysterious administrative requirement lurking around the corner.

At least, I sincerely hope there isn’t. I have learned not to challenge Turkish bureaucracy by saying things like that too confidently.

I do not know exactly what comes next. And for once, I do not need to. Today, I am going to let myself sit with this one. I am letting myself enjoy this moment without immediately turning it into another project, deadline, or checklist.

The most difficult thing I have ever done is behind me.

I did it.

And I am incredibly proud of myself.

There is plenty more happening here in Ankara, of course. Coming up on Tiffles in Türkiye, I will share the next chapter in my seemingly never-ending adventures in apartment living-and why yes, I am moving again, this time armed with some hard-earned lessons. I also have a post coming about one of my favorite ways to experience Ankara: walking its streets, climbing its ridiculous hills, wandering through neighborhoods like Tunali and Kızılay, and occasionally waiting for a very determined snail to cross the sidewalk after the rain. And I want to spend a little time writing about the ordinary things that still make Türkiye feel extraordinary to me-those small moments, habits, sounds, foods, conversations, and surprises that remind me that even after nearly three years, I still often look around and think, I actually live here.

Wishing you the courage to keep going when the finish line always seems to move, people who hope when you need a little help finding your way, and moments of joy big enough to remind you just how far you’ve come.

With much love, and one very relieved MBA, from Ankara,

Tiffles, Stormy, and Smokey 🐾