Those of you who have been around for a while may remember that shortly after Sam was born, I had an identity crisis got the bright idea to start graduate school.
Jenny went out of her way – repeatedly – to tell me what a bad plan it was. But did I listen? Of course not.
So here I sit, two years later. I actually managed to complete all my coursework (and got all A’s… except for one awful online course. I got a C+ in that. Learn from my mistakes, kids – buy the correct text book). It meant late evenings one or two nights a week, and fitting things like reading and writing papers into my schedule, but I lived to tell about it.
However.
One minor detail stands between me and my MA.
My thesis.
Yeah. My thesis. Originally I had planned to write it and be done by May 2010. Then the plan shifted to an August graduation. But here I sit at the end of August, and all I have to show for it is a draft of a proposal (not even the real thing, just the proposal!) that my advisor chewed up and spit out. That happened in May, and I haven’t managed to do a thing with it since then.
It is a giant monkey on my back. I want to get it over with, I want to be done already. But I don’t want to do it. I don’t have time to do it.
I’m going to have to find both the time and the motivation, and I know the longer I put it off the harder it’s going to be. Ugh.
Jenny was right all along. Grad school is for suckers.
As a MA English dropout, who quit with only the thesis remaining, I beg you to press on! After switching from non-thesis to thesis option, the end was in sight, but I was teaching high school and pregnant (baby and thesis due the same day in April). Husband and I were headed to the mission field the following July, so delay was not an option. The Wed of Thanksgiving break, I had literally one day of open library to finish compiling up the research for my prospectus (due three weeks later in Dec). I HAD to have the most productive day EVER. I sat surrounded by books at the university library at around 11 AM. When the student aid came over and glibly said, “The school’s decided to close at noon for Thanksgiving break. We’ll reopen Monday,” I burst into tears! I had to put all the research guides back. When I got out of the library, I threw up in the trash can and then it started pouring rain. I called my husband and told him, through heaving sobs and torrents of rain, that since there was NO way that I could finish the work, I would have to drop the thesis. He said, in what I imagine was a very Jenny-esque tone (I went to college with her), “I wondered when you were gonna figure that out.” Prove them wrong Emily; you can do it!!
Wait… are you me in the year 2001? Same thing happened to me, then.
DO IT NOW. I never did. Thesis isn’t done. All coursework is. The monkey on my back is still there, but I forget about him a lot. Except times like now, when people LIKE YOU remind me, 😉 or he waves his hands in front of my eyes–then it feels like someone punched me in the stomach.
You can do it, cousin! I mean, it’s still for suckers and all but you should definitely finish! Even if it means totally buying your thesis online. Oh wait. Maybe that’s not a good idea. But, yeah, finish it. Wait. can you just print out all your posts and staple them together? That’s a lot of work already done!
do it! i’m in grad school and still have 2 yrs to go (that includes coursework + thesis). i’m in a dual masters program & even though it’s hard sometimes i know it’s my dream so i need to press on! good luck!
I have an 8, 6, & 5 year old and have just gone back to school, not by choice, but out of necessity as a new single mother. It does mean so many hours at night and is so hard to fit in with little ones. We homeschool and it has tough to manage time, but doable (sometimes ha). I am 40 years old and have about 1 more year to complete undergrad and am thinking of nursing…I think anytime you complete something educationally it is a great achievement. I have a sister in law in Mexico that did all but her thesis IN LAW SCHOOL almost 15 years ago now and I think she is still sorry for that. Do it, get it over with and the monkey will be off your back. I know you will look back and say WOW I did that THEN?! Enjoy the process too 🙂
Just rip the bandaid off and DO IT. That monkey is going to be the size of KING KONG if you keep putting it off any longer. Or maybe he has already turned. Either way you need to lock your self away somewhere. A nice cushey spa hotel would be nice, and just work away on it. Good luck to you and by the way YOU CAN DO IT!
Wow–the hotel idea is awesome! I’ll be done with grad school in March, so I totally feel your pain. I have an online class I’m taking now, where all the work is to be done by this Sunday at midnight. I’m less than a quarter done, and instead of working on it right now, I’m READING BLOGS LIKE YOUR’S and wasting time on Facebook!!!!!
I was where you are three years ago. I had made it through all my doctoral classes with only my dissertation to finish. I spent a summer procrastinating. I took some advice from a writer friend of mine who writes children’s books. Do something every day. Keep track of everything you do. Even if it is just opening the document and adding a period to a sentence or surfing the net for information and saving it to your computer for future reference (easy and surprisingly inspiring). Really, if you tell yourself that just writing one paragraph is not so hard or time consuming, you will accomplish it and feel like you made progress.
If you have Microsoft Outlook for email, look at the bottom left corner and you will see a note icon that looks like a post it. Open one up and type “Something Every Day”. Now every time you do anything go to that note and type the date and a small note of what you did. You will be surprised at how one period leads to four pages of writing. I still have my note. I thought it would take forever to finish my paper because it seemed like it was such a slow process. From my first date to the last was four months. Here’s today’s note – 8/28/10 – Sought advice for writing paper. See? you did something!
You can do this! Don’t stop now!
Frugal Dr. Mom
I think you are awesome for doing all of this, Emily. You can do it. (I mean you put up with Jenny, so this should be a breeze, right?) *TOTES KIDDING JENNY I <3 you!*
yeah, and rehab is for quitters, listen, congrats on all the hard work, get busy on that thesis, tell Jenny to stuff it! Her mommy has a masters….apple, tree, what happened!
Pam and Sid said hi btw!
UP
OK, I think we need a #bigdealmoms meet-up STAT!! Through some fascinating conversation (and lots of adult beverages), you should be inspired to finish.
I am so proud of you too! But would be even more proud of you over a skinny maragarita. Ya know.
When people in the family get a new degree, a generally buy them a nice engraved pen. I know that when the pens run out of ink, people put them in a drawer somewhere and forget about them. This is not out of ingratitude, it’s because you can never find a refill that fits. I know that. But the point is, I want to buy you a pen, too. I want to take your picture on graduation day as you open the gift box and behold, for the first time, that gloriously engraved pen. I sort of like the ones that have four push-buttons at the top so you can select blue, black, green, or red ink. Those are cool. Anyway, if you want a really nice pen…
AND this is why I LOVE your dad!!! LOL!!
You CAN do this!! Look how far you have come baby!!! JUST DO IT!!! 🙂