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When I finished my lab work back in 2000, I just had to write and submit my thesis to get my M.Sc. It was January and the deadline was 9 months away. I took a full month just to do nothing, mainly because I was exhausted. Then I took a month to organize my background reading material, format my document, write a ToC and then… fuck all. In the interim, I started a full-time job. I’d occasionally glance at the box with all my thesis and lab shit, but mostly I avoided it. The months passed, as they are wont to do. Then it was to the point where I had a week left. I told my boss not to fire me, but not pay me, and that he wouldn’t see me for a week. I bought a carton of cigarettes, moved my coffee maker on to my desk, and went to work. I’d work non-stop from 10am to 6am. I chain smoked. I lived on Salonica take-out (this was prior to my allergies breaking out, so I could still do shit like that). I had a 20-hour WinAmp (it really kicks the llama’s ass) playlist. Every time I heard a Britney Spears song, it was my cue to get up and move around a bit.

After a couple of days, I gave my intro, background and methods to my thesis supervisor for him to review while I started working on my results and discussion. A couple of more days and I swapped the first set of corrections with the latest material. I still remember that on the Friday morning when it was due, at around 6am, I was in my office at work printing out my first full copy of my thesis. I had to stop by a copy center to have it copied and bound, then stop by the thesis office to hand it in – at around 3pm. I’d done it. That night, on the terrace roof of the building I was living in, I drank a couple of bottles of bubbly with some friends, got drunk and went to bed. I woke up some time on Sunday with the mother of all headaches.