I submitted my thesis a week ago today! And I know I should be delighted... I never thought I'd even get that far and I always said if I could just get as far as submitting a thesis I would be happy... Ha! The amount of times I have said in my life "I'll be happy when..."

Anyway I have two weeks off before I need to start preparing for the viva (first bit of time off in years!!!) and I am finding myself spending it moping around the house worrying about jobs/money/you name it! Myself and my partner are planning on moving to the UK (from Ireland) so I am frantically trying to get a job - I had one interview so far and I was really well-matched with the job description but I still didn't get the job! I can't find anything anywhere near as suitable so I am now just applying for totally random things... But surely if I couldn't get the job where I had everything on the job description, then I won't be able to get these other ones either (where I'm not that well-matched at all)?

Also I am already planning the move from this house when we don't even know where we are going yet (we are going to stay with relatives in the meantime), trying to plan our wedding which is next May (in Ireland, so I kind of need to have it all sorted before we go!)... Arrgghhhh!!! Oh yeah and I'm broke from having to do the last few months of my research un-funded...

Anyway I think I just need to vent!!! But also just wondering does anyone else suffer from the "I'll be happy when..." syndrome, where as soon as you get the thing you wanted, you have 10,000 more things to worry about instead, resulting in a chronic state of unhappiness???

And it's my birthday tomorrow :-( Haven't even planned anything as I just feel like crawling under the duvet and pretending that the real world doesn't exist anymore...

Sorry for ranting!!! Any advice on how to just cheer up/chill out would be much appreciated!

you have a bit of the 'I've got to the end of that bit, and am now in a bit of a limbo' situation. not everybody calls it the 'i'll be happy when..' but I guess we all have the once this thing is done (page/chapter/ painting/gardening, whatever) I will be able to relax a bit, so its just life!

first, happy birthday for tomorrow - please accept this virtual cake (its in the shape of a stegosaurus, my youngest daughter's favourite birthday cake) and of course being virtual has no calories, so you can scoff the lot and not give any to anyone else if you don't want to. 

second, congrats about getting your thesis handed in.

third, the job thing is just one of those things, sometimes internal people are given the job and others are just there to make it look like they are considering others, so don't take it to heart.

As for all the other stuff, do some planning like you did with your thesis, get some big pieces of paper and write down everything you can think of and get it into order (if you are very lucky, you can then delegate all the tasks and just tell others what to do) :-)

Oh, and do have some fun for a couple of weeks, you deserve it!

best wishes

J