The week that I submitted my softbound thesis was a long and stressful one. I had to finish my thesis and make sure it looked nice, was formatted properly and there were no big mistakes and I had to do a presentation at a seminar for the people who funded my PhD. Thankfully the presentation was just a shortened/slightly altered version of one I had given before however the presentation itself did not go smoothly. They had a microphone hooked up to a PA system but unfortunately when I was talking it kept making feedback noises even after I stepped away from the microphone. It was very frustrating as it kept happening and I had to stop several times but none of the organisers came up to switch it off or to try and help! So the presentation was on the Wednesday and my thesis submission date was the Friday but to make things more stressful I woke up on Thursday with a bad cold. This combined with issues getting the train and trying to get my thesis sorted whilst my supervisors disagreed about some things wasn't fun! After a final check over the thesis on Friday morning my mum and I took it to a place near our house where they printed it and bound it for me so I had two copies for the examiners and one copy for me. My mum then drove me into town where I got one of my supervisors to sign a submission form before submitting the two copies of my thesis into the submission office.
I have to say it was a bit of an anticlimax! It didn't help that I was suffering from the cold. I've spent the time since then relaxing and recovering from the cold and now I'm recovering from the sore throat that I got after recovering from the cold! I was surprised how tired I was after submitting the thesis for several days after, I guess I had powered through getting it finished and it caught up with me. It's not over yet though, I still have to do what is known as a viva which is a long interview where you have to defend your thesis. It takes place with an examiner from your university who wasn't involved with your work at all and then another examiner from elsewhere. Mine is going to take place in November at some point. Hopefully I will pass that and then it will be a case of making any corrections (hopefully just minor ones) that they suggest. Then I will get my thesis properly hardbound with copies for the university, the people who fund me and of course one for myself.. As for what comes after I have no idea, I will have to start doing research on jobs/potential research opportunities soon.
My softbound thesis, it 215 pages long but that is with double line spacing and I had quite a few pictures/figures/tables/diagrams:
