And.....Done
Hello all!
Around now, 4 years ago, after weeks of worrying, I found out that I had done enough on my A-Levels that I had been offered a place at my first choice University.
4 years later and the final deadline for my dissertation – my final assessment for this course – has passed. At 3pm yesterday, I officially finished.
Horray!
This has been the most difficult assessment that I have done over the past 4 years and perhaps even the most difficult one that I have done in my whole academic life!
The past week was particularly stressful as I set out to finish the report in time for the deadline. I actually finished it for the day before because I had to get it printed and bound.
Then there was the stress a few weeks back to get a working system ready to demo. In fact, there were many stresses of trying to get that thing to work! This dissertation has been a constant presence in my life.
Also both my desktop and netbook failed. My desktop seems to randomly have power cuts. Then it didn’t even switch on for a week until it randomly started working fine until last weekend…I hope its the power supply unit and not the motherboard.
Then the netbook hardrive died. I had to buy a new one and reinstall everything. Decided to go for an SSD drive and it really sped things up. Luckily, in both cases, there was no loss in data as everything was in the cloud.
I do have some worries. I am constantly thinking, what if I missed out something major! I was not able to check with my tutor if it was OK before I finished, so I worry that I have gone completely the wrong way. Or what if I have missed out a section? Or done the references wrong so I get done for plagiarism? What if I submitted an incomplete version by accident (I have checked but still)?
So what next?
Well despite finishing all possible work I am still technically a student. Here are a few more milestones that will be happening until I finish:
1st September – Start my new full time job. Although it is at the same company doing more or less the same role, I will no longer be a student in their eyes, just a full time employee.
Latest 19th September – I find out my final mark for the dissertation and indeed my entire degree.
30th September – This is the date that my course officially ends. My student card and my student travel card both expire on this date. This is the date I am no longer a student.
27th, 28th, or 29th January 2015 – The graduation ceremony is on one of these three dates. Not sure which one yet.
Next week I shall be going on my summer holiday. It is still in August so technically, although late, it is a summer holiday! I have been looking forward to it and although I can’t completely forget about University until my result, at least there will be no hard work until I return and I can relax a little bit.