I finished my Master of Arts degree in December, 1998, by submitting and getting a Passing grade for my paper in library and information science. Today I picked up the degree certificate. I am the queen of procrastination! Given that it won’t be that many years (I hope) before I get a much prettier diploma saying I’m a PhD^*, it might seem a little unnecessary. But the department secretary has asked for us all to show our degree papers, which meant I kind of needed a paper to show. The funny thing is that here, at this job, my degree doesn’t make any difference to my pay, it’s just a matter of what letters they put in the university phone book; whereas at my former job it was a substantial difference in pay — but there they didn’t ask to see the diploma, they took my word for it.

It’s a rather nice-looking piece of paper though, with my full name, an embossed seal^** and a water-mark and everything. If I remember it, I might scan it on Monday when I bring it in to work, and post a picture.

^*Wood duly touched.
^**Not that kind of seal. Stop barking.