The final conference is almost here, friends and colleagues from afar are already on the plane, those based closer to Birmingham will be arriving tomorrow and Tuesday morning, and although we can hardly believe it ourselves, the edition is ready to launch. You read that correctly. I know!
I did wonder many times whether I was a complete crazy lady to give up a full time permanent job that I enjoyed to do something very different, something so unlike anything I had ever done before, something fixed term, without set hours or holiday, and let’s not even think about the salary-to-student stipend fall from grace that my bank account endured. But I am so glad I did it. Without running the risk of sounding prematurely and hideously self-congratulatory – after all, my thesis is still far from complete thanks to my deciding to have two babies whilst writing it, the conference hasn’t actually taken place yet and any number of ‘issues’ could take place (and I don’t just mean we run out of custard creams at coffee break, although that would be bad enough) and although it’s ready, we haven’t actually launched the edition yet – I am so glad I made the leap and joined a great team of people to be part of the project. I have met so many people off my bibliography – how many PGs can say that? And through the project I have made some real friends for life. I will also always be grateful to Aengus, our esteemed leader and my fantastic PhD supervisor, for offering me such an opportunity. It has been so fun, so fulfilling, and not really like working for a living at all.
Here’s hoping we can finish our project with a successful edition launch and an enjoyable conference. That really would make for a lovely Christmas, wouldn’t it. I’ll deal with the thesis at a later date (honest).