Summer's arrived in Lancaster, and with that familiar crunch time feeling as term winds down. Between dissertation deadlines and final projects, the campus has this strange mix of stress and relaxation, people hunched over laptops in the sunshine, academic panic softened by the fact that you can sit outside while you work.

Dissertation Progress

I've been having regular check-ins with my dissertation supervisor, which honestly keeps me sane during this whole process. Most of my days are spent wrestling with downloading from WRDS, Morning Direct, and a handful of other software like Python that seemed impossible a few months ago. The learning curve was steep, but now I'm enjoying figuring out how these tools work and what they can reveal about my research.

The LUMS Learning Development team has been a lifeline for writing support. Their dissertation assistance workshops have helped refine not just my writing style, but my approach to structuring complex arguments. It's one of those university resources that deserves more recognition.

Creative Pursuits

Between research sessions, I've been exploring some wonderfully unexpected activities. The grad college's cross-stitching and crochet workshops working with your hands after hours of screen time.

Even better was the student-organised cooking workshop in the grad kitchen, where we learned to make mushroom shrimp soup from scratch. These informal gatherings remind me why postgraduate life can be so enriching, you're surrounded by people passionate about learning, whether it's research methodologies or perfecting a recipe.

Embracing the Season

The beautiful weather has been impossible to ignore. I've been taking advantage of the blooming campus with regular runs around the grounds.

Bittersweet Goodbyes

Not everything about the term's end is celebratory. This week, I said goodbye to one of my flatmates, a reminder that postgraduate life is full of these transitional moments. People move on to new opportunities, new cities, new chapters. It's part of the experience, but it never gets easier.

As I settle into the final stretch of the term, I'm struck by how this season in Lancaster has been about more than just academic progress. It's been about finding balance between intensive research and creative hobbies, between individual work and community connection, between the satisfaction of achievement and the poignancy of change.

Summer in Lancaster has taught me that the best academic experiences happen when you're fully present, not just in your research, but in all the small moments that make this time memorable.

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