Graduation!

Back in 2012, I graduated with my MSci in physics. In October of the same year, I started my PhD in physics. I completed my thesis in September 2016, passed my viva in December 2016, and handed in the final, bound, corrected and updated copy, along with all the paperwork, in January 2017. Perhaps expectedly, getting a PhD is a bit of a faff.

Then, last Thursday, I attended the graduation ceremony. The second ceremony I had attended at the University of Glasgow. Glasgow does a damn fine graduation ceremony. There have pomp and ritual and singing in Latin. We don’t do mortar boards, but you do get bopped on the head with a very important velvet cushion, you shake the Vice Chancellor’s hand and get awarded your scroll. Then you do the graduates procession from the 120-year-old Bute Hall, where the ceremony is held, down into the cloisters.

 

That’s “Dr Nerds” to you

 

Then you obey all instructions to pose for all photos, which makes everybody’s families very happy indeed. You collect a glass of champagne and hug all your friends and family and try to prevent your robes from falling off your shoulders or catching in your high heels. There are few prettier places where you could hope to do all of this, and an ancient university does feel like a very special setting.

When all was done we returned the robes and my family and I joined P and his family for a very nice celebratory lunch at Sarti on Wellington Street. When we got home, I admit to having taken a nap – I’d had to get up at 5 am to get ready, organise everyone, and be at the University for 8:30 to pick up the robes, a plate full of pasta basically knocked me out.

So that’s it. The very, very, very last stage to getting my PhD. Technically I’ve had the confirmation of my award for months, and it’s that piece of paper that gives me the right to call myself Doctor, rather than the fancy scroll, but it still feels good to have it all finalised.