Hitting the submit button for my masters thesis was the weirdest feeling I have ever experienced.
After two years of essay writing, academic research, fieldwork and reflective journalistic practice, I was convinced that nothing would make happier than handing in my final dissertation. Oddly enough, when I sent my 80-page paper into the Turn-It-In universe, my heart sank a little.
Actually, it sank a lot.
It hit me that I would rather have a master’s dissertation to write than worry about the rest of my life.
Being the ultimate optimist that I am, instead of worrying about updating my resume and looking for jobs, I first took out the time to reflect back on the most amazing two years of my life.
I left Toronto in the summer of 2012 and moved to Denmark to study under the umbrella of the prestigious Erasmus Mundus consortium. I met students from 45 nationalities in my Journalism, Media and Globalisation program. I was taught by professors from around the world and truly felt that I was becoming smarter after every lecture.
Then I moved to Sydney for an exchange semester. And then I moved to Singapore to do a summer placement. And then I moved to London to finish off the course.
It’s almost been a year since I have lived in London. The plan was to leave at the end of January. It didn’t happen. Then the plan was to leave at the end of May. Also didn’t happen. Then I said (and probably also made this my Facebook status) that I was finally coming home at the end of the summer. Not sure if that will happen either.
There is something addictive about living abroad. It doesn’t mean that you don’t love your hometown or your country; it just means that you constantly have itchy feet and a craving for new experiences.
I think that’s why I was gutted when my master’s thesis was written and submitted. For the last two years, I had a solid excuse to live abroad: my education. Now, that this chapter is over, the next challenge is to look for work placements and projects. And in my case, I would prefer if they were abroad.
Now that I am done being a student abroad, it’s bittersweet to say that this will be my last From the Field post. Thanks to everyone who has followed this blog over the last two years. I am looking forward to following the many adventures of all the other amazing bloggers on Verge.
