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| KnittingJenny | ||
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Knitting Books All about me |
Graduation Day
My Master's thesis was due on 15 June; grades were released on 04 July, and today was graduation. It was a swift end to a slow year.
No, I did not attend the graduation ceremony. I never do. I really don't see the point. It's not like I'd be celebrating something I'm proud of. Quite the contrary. So I read some books. So I wrote some papers. So what. Anybody can do it. I just don't view this degree (or my last Master's) as any big accomplishment.
Hey, if you're into your degrees, that's great. More power to you. I just don't feel that way. Like, I could never, ever imagine framing any of my diplomas, and hanging them on the wall. To me, that'd be hilarious. And it's even funnier if you consider the state of my diplomas----they are ragged, having been man-handled from country to country, having been shuffled from visa app to visa app. I don't know why, but I am constantly having to prove my education to various immigration officials. (It's not just England-----it's everywhere.)
Anyway, what I love is reading, and history, and heated discussion. These are things that, ideally, you should get from graduate school. But, I know (and you know) that you can also get these things from, say, a stitch-n-bitch. How many times have I been knitting in a cafe and the discussion gets heated up? It's great. Knitters are not passive people. Knitters are definitely opinionated.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much heated discussion in my recent classroom experience (even though there were only seven students in the entire program, including me). In fact, we were encouraged to be quiet. To me, that's a Britishism, which is so different than my American schooling. So, since the discussion was lacking, the one thing that I will indeed miss about graduate school is the research.
I did enjoy going to the British Library (their Library of Congress), and the National Archives, and the Royal Navy library, the National Maritime library, the National Art Library (at the Victoria and Albert Museum------way cool), etc etc etc.....and I am going to miss researching my topic, my thesis title of which was:
So, basically, we're talking about sailor uniforms and how / why they developed in the Royal Navy, and then how / why elements of the sailor uniform began appearing in civilian dress. Think little boys' sailor suits, and women's dresses with the distinctive sailor collar. Talk about having fun with images, it was a blast searching for the right images, in paintings, photographs, drawings, advertisements, etc etc etc. What fun. For this time period, of course, I researched quite a bit about the Crimean War (1854-1856), which was interesting to me as I'd never studied that war before. It's funny, how in America, we only really study the wars that we were active in. Perhaps it's that way everywhere. So, with the war theme of the paper, it did actually tie into my first Master's thesis. Really, it did. Because the interesting thing about the study of war is looking at the economics and trade habits during the war (any war). It's interesting (and amazing) to consider how "business" is managed during times of war; how fashion is still marketed, how life goes on. For your amusement, the title of my first Master's thesis was:
I wonder what all that really means.... So anyway, there you have it. Two Master's degrees, done and dusted, as they say in England. Now, it's back to the knitting, which I've reluctantly ignored these past few months. There's nothing like the guilt of knitting when you know you should be studying.
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