A Triumphant Return
It has been a bit over ten months since I left Australia. In that time I have done a lot of work completing a thesis which had its foundations in my five months of experiences in Australia. I graduated last month with a Master of Architecture, a Bachelor of Architecture, and a Bachelor of Arts in History. Through all of the time and sleepless nights (there were MANY in the past ten months) of completing my thesis (which fulfilled requirements for all of the degrees) - a 230 page book and an architectural proposal manifest in a model that was 1.5mx1m (4'-11"x3'-3") and dozens of drawings and images which filled a board which was 5.2sm (56sf) - I am happy to say that I learned a lot in the research and work and still enjoy the topic as much (if not more than) as when I started the entire process last August.
I defended the history portion of the thesis in early April, had my final reviews for the architectural components 1 May, and submitted the final books to the various departments (Architecture, History, Honors) on 7 May. In the immediate aftermath, my thesis advisor for architecture sent me an email that acknowledged that I probably had little desire to think about the thesis for a while, but that I should consider publication in journals. Also, there was a symposium being held in June in Brisbane about the subject I had written on (I promise, I will explain in another post, but for now it is late), and while the deadline for submissions had passed the week prior, it might not hurt to contact the director to see if they were still taking abstracts for consideration.
With that email, I mustered together my abstract and explained the situation. Nine days after graduation (only a week ago), once I was already back home in Atlanta and assuming that they had decided not to ask me to speak, I got an email saying that I was invited to the University of Queensland to present at the symposium. Since that invite, I have spent a lot of time in the last week securing funding and sorting out travel plans. As of today, all my accommodations and travel once in Australia are arranged, and in the next day or two I will be booking my international flights.
So that's it. I'm going to be back in Australia less than ten and a half months after leaving. While I had hoped for an opportunity like this, I never really expected it to come true. Since things have started falling into place, it has been hard to sleep at night! Speaking with my friends, former professors, and co-workers, I have been setting up an itinerary and meetings to fill my time. The plans call for me to be in two cities I didn't get to during my five months last year. I could not be more excited.
For now I will leave you with that. More information to come in the following days as I prepare to return to the country of the antipodes.
I defended the history portion of the thesis in early April, had my final reviews for the architectural components 1 May, and submitted the final books to the various departments (Architecture, History, Honors) on 7 May. In the immediate aftermath, my thesis advisor for architecture sent me an email that acknowledged that I probably had little desire to think about the thesis for a while, but that I should consider publication in journals. Also, there was a symposium being held in June in Brisbane about the subject I had written on (I promise, I will explain in another post, but for now it is late), and while the deadline for submissions had passed the week prior, it might not hurt to contact the director to see if they were still taking abstracts for consideration.
With that email, I mustered together my abstract and explained the situation. Nine days after graduation (only a week ago), once I was already back home in Atlanta and assuming that they had decided not to ask me to speak, I got an email saying that I was invited to the University of Queensland to present at the symposium. Since that invite, I have spent a lot of time in the last week securing funding and sorting out travel plans. As of today, all my accommodations and travel once in Australia are arranged, and in the next day or two I will be booking my international flights.
So that's it. I'm going to be back in Australia less than ten and a half months after leaving. While I had hoped for an opportunity like this, I never really expected it to come true. Since things have started falling into place, it has been hard to sleep at night! Speaking with my friends, former professors, and co-workers, I have been setting up an itinerary and meetings to fill my time. The plans call for me to be in two cities I didn't get to during my five months last year. I could not be more excited.
For now I will leave you with that. More information to come in the following days as I prepare to return to the country of the antipodes.
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