I FINISHED MY MASTER’S THESIS!!!!
Social media version: “I have just done the near-humanly impossible, that only 5% of Americans are able to do. Bow down, bitches.”
More balanced version: “Fuck. I will never, ever, EVER do that again. Weekends, sleep, and social life, I’ve missed you. Wait, where did all my friends go?? I guess they went on with their lives while I was puttering away for the past six months of mine.” :(
Look, I and anyone else (the 5%… I made up that statistic) who completes a thesis or dissertation have every right to feel shamelessly proud of our accomplishments. We’ve sacrificed a lot. Our sanity, for one. When it came to crunch time, I seriously did not ALLOW myself to sleep on a Saturday night because I knew I needed that large block of non-interrupted hours to get shit done. I wouldn’t leave my room for perhaps 20 hours at a time. It was unhealthy in so many ways.
Remember when Bitstrips was cool? Just about the only fun I got to have in those six months.
But the truth is that we academics are also extremely privileged. Who really has the time, resources, and emotional support to be able to study something they love in such hyper-detail? The opportunity to do research that has the potential to make a real difference in the world? Even though many graduate students don’t grow up with relative privilege, the fact that we’ve gotten to point where we can do this at all means that somehow, we’ve made it. It’s an honor that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
#thesising
Still… it’s really hard to think that way when you’re living like a machine just to get that document done. I felt inhuman basically every weekend from last September through February. I’m not sure how people do these things while living with significant others, or with children.
Last Christmas, I gave away my soul.
It’s complicated.
So, there you have it. I finished my master’s thesis. It’s on the Internet somewhere, if you’d like to read it. Bow down, bitches.
Kate-colored glasses 