My thesis is now submitted. Yippee!
My computer has seized up. It’s last action being to successfully convert my thesis from Word to PDF. After that it simply gave up and so has my brain.
The submission process was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I delivered it (3 bound copies) to my university’s research office not into a chute but into the hands of one the staff, who with big smile said “Congratulations”. From there it was a casual conversation with one of the professors, who also gave me a hearty congratulations and onto the library where I could access my Dropbox account to download my thesis for submission electronically. I then received an acknowledgement form the research office that I had met the requirements for submission and with that my Honours program was complete!
My thesis contained a series of thank yous to key people who had inspired me, mentored me and supported me throughout the last two years, but there is another set of thank yous that are also appropriate. Thanks Spotify, Pandora and iTunes whose collective music libraries have sustained me across approximately 40,000 words.
Intially it was Springsteen whose tour downloads provided me with at least two months of listening. Then it was my music staples Tori Amos, Rick Wakeman, The Beatles, Bob Dylan.
In the days leading up to my exam as my anxiety levels reached levels I hadn’t seen since my Professional Year to qualify as a Chartered Accountant, it was a diet of classical music and it was here that Spoify was true gold. Playlists that others in a position similar position to me had carefully crafted.
I also found country, a new genre for me. I’ve loved listening to The Dixie Chicks, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and The Band Perry.
So often though, it was the music that had sustained me through High School and Teriary study in the 70s that I listened too. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to Rick Wakeman’s Six Wives of Henry VIII, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Myths and Legends in the last two years. I’ve reacquainted myself with Wings. I’ve gone album by album through The Beatles and Joni Mitchell. There’s been Carole King and Pandoras Soft Rock stations made up almost exclusively of 70s sounds – James Taylor, Jim Croce, Seals and Crofts etc.
I’ve also listened to New Zealand radio station, The Sound. Their approach to playing album tracks and sides made them a good option on occasions when I didn’t want to think about what to listen too.
I don’t know how many songs I’ve listened too but it is thousands. I have too say that right now I don’t think I could listen to another song. I’m sure in a week or two it will be different but just not today!
So now it’s up to the examiners. I hope they are kind.
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