The day of submission
Ryan Cogley's talks about the emotions of completing and handing in academic work.
03 January 2023
I submitted you electronically, through email as a PDF.
It seemed so easy, like the difficulties of the past two years had never happened.
When I clicked send,
I forgot about my grant troubles,
the ethical issues in my study
and the difficulty in accessing an adequate sample size.
After I clicked send, I smiled at the crinkled, colourful poster I made to represent my study
it never won any competitions, but I was still proud of it,
and it satisfied the publish or perish rule that I had heard of.
I shut down my laptop after that – my eyes still thank me for this – and didn't reopen it until now.
It's two weeks later.
And this entire two-year journey has become but a mere story I tell.
Sometimes, it's like it never happened.
But I'll always remember the day I hit send and everything disappeared,
the day when my challenges didn't matter.
About the author
Ryan Cogley is a Masters by Research student at South East Technological University, Ireland. He holds a degree in Psychology and also writes creatively. You can find out more at www.rncogley.wordpress.com
