Our baby is due in just under a month but this week I finished baking a baby of another kind: my doctoral dissertation. Over 4 years in the making it definitely took much more time and personal effort than the flesh-and-blood baby. And heavier too! By the time I was done with printing it out in the seven required copies (plus one more for me) I had a pile of almost 2000 pages.
I had imagined that submitting will feel like a celebration and a great achievement. Yet by the time I was done with commuting to Bremen on two consecutive days, printing & copying, dragging the pile of paper to the copy shop to have it bound and back the next day to finally submit it, all I felt was exhaustion. Normally this occasion would’ve called for a glass of wine (or two, or three…) but as it’s not an option at the moment I made do with tea & truffles and nice long bath.
And you know what felt better than submitting? That how moved my husband was when he read his name in the acknowledgements.
P.S. If you’re interested, my dissertation can be downloaded and read for free from the University of Bremen library.