Finally it is done. After a series of small mountains I have had to climb in recent months, I can start to reclaim my life. I presented my paper at the Creative Margins conference at 2.00 pm yesterday after a bumpy flight up (accompanied by the smell of vomit from the previous flight), and an interesting ride with a Serbian taxi driver (during which I am sure I asked him way too many questions about himself).
When I settled in at Curtin I went to a couple of other presentations and was pretty impressed. The level of discourse required for post-grad study is still fairly new to me but thankfully I didn't feel intimidated - just respectful and intrigued. This academic world is such a phenomenon in itself and my own trajectory within it has occurred at a dizzying speed. It was a good feeling to know that I could hold my own ground and sobering to realise how much further I could go if I chose to.
My own presentation went well. When I scanned the room on a couple of occasions people were attentive, or were at least doing a good job of appearing to be! I had some positive feedback in question time, specifically about my images which I had generously sprinkled through the talk so that people wouldn't fall asleep. It really was a joy to share something which I am genuinely passionate about and that is what showed through and won me over in the other presenters as well.
The flight back was traumatic, all I wanted to do was get home, but Thor had different ideas. Spectacular lightning accompanied us most of the way and typically I watched the whole light show from my window seat because, if I am going to go out in such spectacular fashion, by hell I want to be present, not cringing in the corner. It really was beautiful and got me thinking that it was easy to see why people thought heaven was in the sky, a strata of mesmerising cloud with no horizon - stretching to infinity. After circling above Albany several times while an electrical storm passed over the airport we finally touched down. When I got outside I wanted to kiss the wet tarmac but thought that might be a bit theatrical, even for me.
When I settled in at Curtin I went to a couple of other presentations and was pretty impressed. The level of discourse required for post-grad study is still fairly new to me but thankfully I didn't feel intimidated - just respectful and intrigued. This academic world is such a phenomenon in itself and my own trajectory within it has occurred at a dizzying speed. It was a good feeling to know that I could hold my own ground and sobering to realise how much further I could go if I chose to.
My own presentation went well. When I scanned the room on a couple of occasions people were attentive, or were at least doing a good job of appearing to be! I had some positive feedback in question time, specifically about my images which I had generously sprinkled through the talk so that people wouldn't fall asleep. It really was a joy to share something which I am genuinely passionate about and that is what showed through and won me over in the other presenters as well.
The flight back was traumatic, all I wanted to do was get home, but Thor had different ideas. Spectacular lightning accompanied us most of the way and typically I watched the whole light show from my window seat because, if I am going to go out in such spectacular fashion, by hell I want to be present, not cringing in the corner. It really was beautiful and got me thinking that it was easy to see why people thought heaven was in the sky, a strata of mesmerising cloud with no horizon - stretching to infinity. After circling above Albany several times while an electrical storm passed over the airport we finally touched down. When I got outside I wanted to kiss the wet tarmac but thought that might be a bit theatrical, even for me.
image courtesy of weblogs.wgntv.com/.../
