After many months of research and many sleepless nights stressing about word counts and fucking MLA citations (I swear to God, fuck MLA), my M.A dissertation is finally on the verge of being completed. Tonight will be my final all-nighter, tomorrow my final day in UCD. Ever. Most likely. Mixed feelings about this, really grew to like the place this last year but happy to be moving on. Will be mostly sad to not spend anymore extended coffee breaks with my bro Kieran O’ Driscoll of Toast Office fame.
Doing this M.A was, by about a million miles, the best decision I have ever made in my 17 something years in the Irish education system. It kicked ass. Sound people, sounds tutors, sound coffee, sound English things we learned. Whatever negative insinuations people have to say about doing English in college, fuck ‘em. I no longer have the patience to listen to dopes who are so blatantly unhappy with their own life decisions that they find a raison d’etre in putting down the study of the Arts in college. Studying English in UCD, especially in a M.A context, has been a rich, rewarding experience that is personally worth more to me, and I hope will always be worth more to me, than a hefty pay cheque. Perhaps my sole regret over these last four years is not taking pride in studying English until this late venture, but hey, I’m Irish. Guilt, shame and self-deprecation are my inherited traits.
Enough with the ramblings. I’m feeling good. Tomorrow spells the end of months of difficult but enjoyable work. Oh and there’s also the small matter that I’m seeing the truly delish Dillinger Escape Plan to celebrate that same night. Gonna lose my freaking mind. I threw up one of my fave jams from their (absolutely incredible) latest album, Option Paralysis. It sounds like nothing you’ve heard Dillinger do, or any band really. Listen through headphones and dream on.
