Handing in my dissertation was a two phased event. The first phase was the electronic submission which I sent whilst on a train to London. After hitting send I looked around the carriage at all the strangers and wanted them to give me a knowing smile or nod, strangely they didn’t! Nevertheless, the sense of relief was overwhelming.
Phase two was posting, tracked of course, the two printed out, bound copies. As I sit and write this blog I can confirm that they were signed for at 9.02am this morning. So that is it, lots of years (too many to mention) of hard work and providing this last paper passes I will have my MA in Strategic Communication.
What will you do with it? What will it mean? Have been just a few of the questions I’ve had. The answers are, hard as it has been, I think I’ll do further research, I have the bug now, I’ve always had a thirst for knowledge, so while I’ll take a few months away from academic study, I know that this is not the end. I’ll also use all that I’ve learned to benefit my agency, the work that we deliver has always been strategic but with each module came new learning and a greater understanding, this has and will continue to improve the service we offer.
I have to say, trudging over to the University of Central Lancashire’s Preston site for a residential for each module has not been the easiest, leaving my wee boy at home and doing this while starting a business have added to the pressure (I know everyone has their own pressures, these are just mine!).
However, when I got to the rainy city (it rained every time!) and found a decent hotel (I kissed a few frogs first in hotel terms), the learning has been great. I’ve also been lucky enough to meet an amazing group of people on the course from England, Wales, Scotland, Mexico and an Italian who was living in the states but moved to Germany during the last few months.
These people, fellow students, working professionals have provided constant support throughout. Without them and their guidance I don’t think I’d have got to the end. We communicate via Whatsapp, something my students told me that people ‘our age’ do!
With messages of support, rallying calls, questions, answers, advice we have kept each other going. We communicate, that’s what we do, we are communication professionals.
I had a day or two off after sending the electronic version in. I’ve now made myself a list of things to learn and do over the next few months, this includes – re starting my sign language classes, learning to code (sounds like a good thing to do) and maybe get the trainers out again and start running.
Needless to say, I’ll find something to do with myself. It has been a great journey so far.
Charlotte's Sidekick Blog 