Deadline day

Wow, what a week! The first week back at university after any holiday is usually busy, but none have been quite as crammed full as the week just gone. It began with moving back to down to Southampton for the final time, knowing that the next time I pack up my things into the back of a car, it will be my last day in this city that I have learnt to call home.

However, there was very little time to reminisce on my time at Southampton, as I had plenty of other things to be thinking about. The most pertinent of these was the deadline for my Masters project that was rushing towards me. Thankfully, due to the hard work I had put in over Easter, my project was well on the road to being finished before I came back. It only required the completion of the final two chapters, the addition of a few paragraphs here and there and a final read-through.

The final trip down to Southampton 

It’s remarkable to think that at the start of the year I barely knew what an active galactic nuclei (AGN) was and yet, seven months later, I have completed a research project that proposes new ideas for the field of AGN astronomy. There’s a saying in science that the day you submit a scientific paper, you are the world expert in the field you have written about. I certainly wouldn’t call myself an expert yet, but I do feel like I understand this subject more than any other branch of physics I’ve studied (except perhaps for my true passion: medical physics).

After several hours of checking and double-checking my report, to the point where I started to question even the simplest spelling, I finally submitted my project electronically, a day before the deadline. Submitting a piece of work that you’re proud of is always a nice feeling, but this time it was also accompanied with some sadness. This was the last piece of coursework I had to submit and, despite the incredible workload it required, I will miss working on my Masters project.

The deadline came just in time for my birthday! Although my birthday is actually this week, I celebrated it with my university friends at the weekend, because it meant that my sister and some of her friends could join us. After spending the afternoon relaxing at home, we then went clubbing in the evening and had a great time, helped by the fact that there were so many of us!

The next day I then went into the city centre to watch the new Avengers film with my housemates, having been assured that the fact I’ve not seen most of the previous Marvel films (with the exception of the Iron Man trilogy) wouldn’t make a difference. This turned out to be true and the film, combined with our fast food indulgence afterwards, proved to a great birthday outing!

As tempting as it was, I didn’t wear my Iron Man costume to the cinema! 

Now that my Masters project is finished, I can turn my full attention to revision and prepare for the exams that are now less than a month away. This week I also have a Viva (an interview for my project) to look forward to, so although a deadline has passed, I think I will be equally busy in the week ahead – which, to be honest, is just that way I like it!

James