Editor’s Note: 
In November 2013, I completed my M.A. in International Relations and World Order from the University of Leicester. I had completed the research degree over two years in my ‘spare time,’ trying to read and write where I could. The degree could be completed entirely by distance learning, though I visited campus and met with my adviser in 2012–it helped to reinforce some of the thoughts I had while locked away in solitary study. I was asked to write some thoughts for future students about the challenges of distance learning, and I thought they might be worth posting to my website as well.
It’s valuable to admit to oneself that earning a post-graduate degree, especially by distance learning, can be an exhausting, rewarding trial. Once that admission is internalized, one can form a strategy to making it to graduation. I knew earning a Master’s would be difficult, but I didn’t really know what that meant until the course began.