Its the 8th of May. A few days ago I emailed my completed dissertation in to Cliff College, and yesterday I posted the paper copy. I can't believe that it's all done now. That moment of pushing the white A4 envelope with four 2nd class stamps on it through the red letterbox on Westmoreland Street in the blazing sunshine heralded my last submission as a degree student!!!
Since I emailed in the pdf, my body has started the slow recovery process from the last 3 years. Its so strange, but even in the 2 summer breaks between academic years, I never really switched off. It has been hard, and its so weird to exist again without that pressure in the back of my head. I can really tell that my body is now resting; taking something of a larger-scale sabbath for the past three years. I am just sleeping constantly, resting resting resting. It feels nice. I also feel an exponentially increased ability to focus. With degree gone, I now have a good void - I have no idea what its going to be filled with, what's next, but I'm peaceful and pleased nonetheless.
A lot of students struggle to really apply themselves to their studies. I was the opposite, I found it literally impossible to switch off from them. I wonder what sort of person I am going to become now that my degree is complete and my attention and focus are much less distracted? I expect it will make me a nicer person. Or at least, I hope it will.
I feel very very tired, and in need of a really good holiday without the kids, but I feel at peace and kind of satisfied too in amongst the exhaustion, and soon I will have the energy to start tidying up the house, packing away those academic textbooks, and getting back into normal society a bit more. All that's left now is the excitement of waiting for my remaining marked essays to arrive in the post, and then walking across a stage in about 6-7 weeks time wearing a black gown and hat, and feeling very very pleased with myself indeed :)
Since I emailed in the pdf, my body has started the slow recovery process from the last 3 years. Its so strange, but even in the 2 summer breaks between academic years, I never really switched off. It has been hard, and its so weird to exist again without that pressure in the back of my head. I can really tell that my body is now resting; taking something of a larger-scale sabbath for the past three years. I am just sleeping constantly, resting resting resting. It feels nice. I also feel an exponentially increased ability to focus. With degree gone, I now have a good void - I have no idea what its going to be filled with, what's next, but I'm peaceful and pleased nonetheless.
A lot of students struggle to really apply themselves to their studies. I was the opposite, I found it literally impossible to switch off from them. I wonder what sort of person I am going to become now that my degree is complete and my attention and focus are much less distracted? I expect it will make me a nicer person. Or at least, I hope it will.
I feel very very tired, and in need of a really good holiday without the kids, but I feel at peace and kind of satisfied too in amongst the exhaustion, and soon I will have the energy to start tidying up the house, packing away those academic textbooks, and getting back into normal society a bit more. All that's left now is the excitement of waiting for my remaining marked essays to arrive in the post, and then walking across a stage in about 6-7 weeks time wearing a black gown and hat, and feeling very very pleased with myself indeed :)
