Friday, January 21, 2005

Stop Press!

When you've spent three and a half years of your life writing a thesis for your PhD, there are times when you wonder if anyone will EVER use your thesis. As someone who left academia for the greater delights and rewards of church youth work, the likelihood of my thesis ever being used is even less than it might have been had I continued my university career and even more so had it ever been published - the reasons why it wasn't are a little too interesting to be blogged about.

Yet today, in true Friday style I had the joyful news that my thesis has indeed been used. Someone used my thesis. Wow. Someone had a pressing need for my thesis. Double wow!

Unfortunately the person who used my thesis was my dad (who has possession of the posh hard-bound version) and the pressing need was exactly that... pressing!

My dad used the two volumes of my weighty thesis to press some bits of paper he had glued together.

It is a fortunate thing that I am, in fact, not jaded by the fact that I do not have a lovely and wonderful job in a university with a glittering career stretching before and three book deals under my arm. If this were the case a girl could be seriously put out by such a thing.

No, in fact, I thought it was rather amusing.

So, a cheery friday thought for you all: there may be things in your life that you thought you would NEVER use again but do not despair, you may find some curious need for them in the future at some point!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Sarah has produced a weighty line of reasoning in her thesis which presents a pressing argument. It would be very easy for the Latin translation work contained in the published edition to have caused division but users of this work have found it a real aid to cohesion" Youthblog