The results are finally in! The standard of entries in this year’s competition was exceptionally high. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did.

A Love Letter to my Thesis

Though we may only be walking, along the first modest few steps
You have already taken me further, than I would have thought…

I was lowered into a well, a pit from which I thought there would be no return
My mind falling to rust and mental atrophy, as my body slaved along a mundane existence
Nowhere had I arrived to, despite rowing the boat through the storm with all my might…

Then on the horizon you appeared, at first a distant star.
A promise of hope but still too far away to see its shape.
But hope you did instill in me a fight erupted from that hope renewed.

As I took up the sword of knowledge, with anxiety tempered experience dulling the blade.
You threw me a lifeline, a rope for me to hold and wrap around myself.
With this rope, I crawled out of the pit, sword in hand like mighty pen to paper, as I fought on…

Though it is the first few modest steps, you have made me fall in love again…

I love what I do and with my heart swelling to an unfamiliar size…
This re-discovered pride feels good.
I have thought and been tested, and though the fight goes on, I now stand with an ally on my side.

You my thesis, though you may still be new, exciting, and unknown.
You are my sword and my shield; you are the pen with which I write a new story.
You are my ally and my hearth, with which I can stand up to mighty storms.

I truly love you my dear thesis, not just for the potential you bring to me…
But for the potential you remind me of, that already existed within me but was long forgotten.

Eternally grateful to you my thesis, as you will be my gateway to a better life, as I use you to build it.

Mads Kristensen