Look at me, updating the blog when I said I would…

I graduated yesterday, I did the actual graduating with all the people and everything! That’s it, my PhD is officially over, and I am so, so proud of myself. The last 3 years and a half years haven’t been easy by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve had some pretty huge changes in my personal life (the majority of which I’ll never talk about online), I was diagnosed with depression, and there have been multiple times when it would have been much easier to give up than it was to carry on. I didn’t though, I dug deeper than I thought I ever could, and I learned how to ask for help when I needed it.

I had a really lovely day yesterday. My Mum and Dad flew up to Aberdeen in the morning, so that we could all (my parents and my long-suffering boyfriend) go for lunch before the graduation ceremony in the afternoon, and by the time the ceremony was over it was pitch black. The day went so quickly, but after a few weeks of wishing I’d chosen to graduate in absentia, I was glad to have been encouraged (read: threatened) by my Mum to attend the ceremony.

Thank you to my family, friends, and colleagues at the Health Services Research Unit for supporting me over the last 3 and a half years, but mostly, thank you to Prof Shaun Treweek and Dr Katie Gillies, who have been the best supervisors I could ever have wished for.

All Aberdeen University graduations were streamed live online, and available for free on YouTube. Head to the 1 hour mark of the video below to see me graduate without falling over, accidentally hitting anyone or swearing – a Christmas miracle 🙂