It pretty much happened as I expected. I woke up early, went to the lab to get the copies and decided against giving them another proof-reading. I caught a taxi out to the binders at about 6:30 am, and bummed around after that for a few hours. We submitted the JACS communication online, and then about 1:30 pm, another taxi trip was made to pick up the bound copies. I submitted them at 4 pm, and it was all out of my hands; short and simple, my finest hour…
It was of course not over just yet, I had to get some signatures and fax the Miami Professor, and then catch my bus to Sydney. I was unfortunately stuck next to a really annoying girl who wouldn't (maybe couldn't) stop talking, and who didn't hesitate to wake me up to tell me some garbage. My hotel was a short walk from the bus depot, and I crashed out big time. I got up early the next morning, and was at the US Consulate at about 8:10 am, and after some rigorous security checks, I got in and handed over all the essentials and was told to wait. There were a few people after me who didn't have one thing or another, so I was glad I had double-checked everything. After about 45 minutes, they called my name and I picked up my passport with the visa inside, simple as that. I walked out 9 am, on an endorphin high. I moved my bus ticket forward and didn't really find much to do in Sydney before I caught the bus home. I got two seats to myself, which made up for the trip up. I arrived in Canberra about 5 pm, and as I was walking home, who should I bump into, but Susan and Heather! Susan had submitted her thesis, and I surprised her by saying I had submitted mine also. She was off to the bar to celebrate, and I dropped my stuff off at home, went to the lab to say hello and check my email. After that I went into Civic for food, and then home to ring my parents before I crashed out about 9 pm. Today will hopefully be social. The onus has always been on me to make the effort with socializing, and when my priorities became solely the finishing of the thesis, true friends reveled themselves… or didn't…
7:40 am - The main problem I have now, is how do I return to a normal life? I mean, I don't think I had a normal life before I began to be plagued by the thesis, so how would I return to a place I've never been? As it is, my time here is limited, I believe I will fly out around the 15th November and that is less than three weeks away. I've agreed to give a small talk on Alchemy for the next SCA meeting, and I will be going home for a few days on Thursday.
Again I return to a time of "the change", and I need to seize it. I'm at the end of an era and these times are rare. The end of primary school, the end of boarding school, the end of Hawkesbury. These times were I was given the chance to reinvent myself, to change, to begin with a clean slate. I can't say with certainty, whether any of these times I succeeded in truly changing myself, but more importantly I had the chance to start anew.
8:30 pm -
The Microbe is so very small,
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue which lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails have lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots,
On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
All these have never yet been seen-
But Scientists, who ought to know,
Assure us that it must be so…
Oh! Let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!
Hilaire Bello, Cautionary Tales