The day finally came; my PhD qualification has been awarded!! This is the final update in my PhD journey.
It’s a strange feeling… euphoria, obviously, and also an incredible sense of achievement for a working-class girl who was the first in her family to go to university. Three degrees and thirty years later and I still love learning. Amid the excitement, though, is the dawning realisation that the journey is over and it’s time to create something new. My work has been my companion through illness and grief this last while, and it’s a big step to go out on my own without it guiding me forward. My thesis has been, to a certain extent, an insight into my soul, but another version of myself is ready to reveal itself and I am excited and nervous to see where she takes me.
As I wait, I can look behind me with pride and satisfaction. The University of Stirling is fabulous, both in terms of its actual facilities and location, and in terms of the staff and resources and especially my supervisors Professor Richard Haynes and Dr Susan Berridge. They are empowering, inspirational and very supportive. I’ve heard stories from other students about how challenging supervision relationships can be , so I very much appreciate the way Richard and Susan valued our work together.
It’s been two and a half years since I started my PhD journey. I can’t decide if that feels like a long time or an incredibly short time! One thing I am sure of is that I loved every minute of researching and writing my thesis. I even found myself looking forward to the Viva examination last November. I was excited for the challenge and looking forward to talking about my work. As it turned out, the examination was robust and very challenging and not as creatively enjoyable as I had anticipated it would be, (I still cringe when I think about how I messed up my first answer, but I did go on to defend everything else well, thankfully and the exam result was good). It took me an hour after the intensity of the exam to properly relax, and after that I was pragmatic and eager to move on to my amendments. I enjoyed doing the additional work process and I submitted my amendments in January this year.
The only challenging period in the whole process was the period between submitting my amendments and waiting on approval. I found the waiting stressful but I shouldn’t have worried and it all worked out excellently in the end.
Dr Margot McCuaig, you did it!
And do you know what, you can too, if that’s what you want from life.
And here ends this journey. I will take this moment to enjoy the silence before turning to the light, the new dawn and the cool breeze that will undoubtedly come alongside it.
Margot McCuaig 