Today marks the inevitable end of an era for me and my academic journey because I defended my dissertation at university just a few hours ago and I passed with flying colours!
This has probably been the most nerve-wrecking oral presentation I had to give in my life so far, but somehow I wasn't a mess and, even though one of the examiners kept interrupting and asked me random shit, I managed to stay calm and give some satisfactory answers. I wrote my thesis about the institution of
house arrest (used mostly during criminal investigation as we do not have house arrest as a way to execute your sentence, like in UK) and one of the examiners even asked jokingly where I was house arrested in the past months and if I was inspired by it, lmao.
Back in September, I wrote in this thread that I wasn't even sure I could enter the Master's program and what people wrote to me back then helped tremendously with my self-esteem. So, with this occasion, I want to thank you all of you once again for your insight and life experience, that made me believe in myself much more. Even with the COVID shenanigans, this uni year felt different, and that was because I finally competed only against myself.