Gratituesday - Thesis is Finished

I'm so thankful to be done with my thesis.

I went to graduate school to study sociology. I had to write a thesis (aka: short book) in order to earn my degree. This was a painfully long and difficult task. It took me about 3 and a half years from start to finish. My grandma compared it to pregnancy...with all the difficulties and with knowing the long process it took to deliver. Thank goodness it has arrived.

I actually finished the paper/book back in December 2010. Even today I catch myself reflecting on how glad I am to be done. I learned a lot about myself a long the way.

I learned that I need mentors in my life. My amazing mentor/professor helped me at every step. She encouraged me, gave me deadlines, asked thought-provoking questions, praised my work, and much more. I now know I need someone who has been where I am, and that has gone in a direction I would like to go in. I need friends that are a few steps ahead of me and friends that are way ahead of me... to guide me in the right direction. It is vital for me to have a variety of people in my life that have succeeded at doing the things I want to do.

I have to take one day at a time. Often along the process, I felt overwhelmed about the huge task that lay before me. I would sit down to work on my paper and find my mind wandering to the day I would finish. That day felt like it was light years away. I had a hard time figuring out what to put on page one, let alone page 100. I could  not imagine my finished product very well. I had a hard time seeing what the finished paper would look like. Towards the end of the project I sped up because I was able to take one day at a time and break the project into tiny slivers of work.

I like short projects. I am a very creative person. I have ideas flowing out of me all the time. Unfortunately, I couldn't utilize this skill very often when writing my thesis. A thesis requires a lot of intense work on the same paragraph you just spent an hour on. My creative juices were either under-utilized or totally shot...I'm not sure which...from working so hard on just one paragraph at a time. I now look for jobs/projects that can be finished in obvious smaller portions or in shorter periods of time (under 6 months).

Often when I am at my job, I am so thankful I'm not sitting in a coffee shop writing my thesis!