New Beginnings: An Ode to September

September has always been my changing month. Maybe it's to do with the school year ingrained deep in my psych. 

Picture taken by Fionnuala Murphy Sept 2015

I am my happiest in the mutable seasons, Autumn and Spring. 

Twenty years ago, this month. I set off on my first Grand Adventure. As a ridiculously naive 17-year old I landed at the University of Bradford with a definite aim of being the best Director of Photography the Oscars world had ever seen. That didn't happen, but along the way I picked up life skills, an eye for detail, an ability to multitask, a surface knowledge of useless information and one of the best friends a girl could have.

Five years after that, in September, I realised that I needed to be in a country where people knew what the word 'Grand' meant. A place where people said Tuesday week, instead of a week on Tuesday. Small things. But things that were home. I needed to be home. Not home-home mind, but Dublin. Dublin - The place I have lived the longest. Probably, despite all reason, my favourite city. 

Jocelyn Bell Burnell and me (the total fan girl)

Three years ago, in September, I started my Masters in Science Communication. A course I decided on pretty quickly after spending a heady weekend in July immersed in science at the EuroScience Open Forum in the convention centre. I have no idea what I was thinking. I work in finance, an MSc in Sci Comms would be next to useless for my career, such that it was. But still.. I love to communicate, and science..

Science is wonderful. 

Last year, in September, I handed in my thesis. My hard won sweat and tears in paper form. My gods, last summer was the worst. I was barely coherent by the end. But September was a good month. September was the month I finished it and got time to think coherently about the rest of my life. Decisions were made and time out was taken. 

A year on, and those decisions have come to fruition. I start a new job on Monday and I'm also, luckily, in a position to potentially do something with my thesis research. This last year has been one of my better ones, with time spent abroad, new friendships made. and more surface knowledge acquired - although this time, hopefully, of a more useful variety.