finish my masters degree

I literally just sent off my first communication with my thesis adviser in almost exactly a year. I sent him rough drafts of my analysis and conclusion and revised drafts of my other 4 chapters minutes ago. I have no idea what to expect in response. In fact, I was unexpectedly quite nervous as I sent it out. The next couple of days should be an interesting game of wait and see.

Just finished 2nd draft of my third thesis chapter…on to chapter 4…

Finished editing Chapter 2 of my thesis. I’m starting to get the hang of how my adviser edited, which makes things go quite a bit faster it seems.

Just finished editing Chapter 1 of my thesis. Three chapters left to edit before I can send anything to my adviser.

I also wanted to pass on the latest crazy development in my graduate career. I heard through the grapevine yesterday that one of my three committee members accepted another job out of the blue and is leaving this summer. It was so out of nowhere that she had accepted the position of department head less than a year ago, so I’m sure the rest of the departmemt is as taken aback/pissed as I am. The only reason I’m not jumping out a window at this point(although I was momentarily terrified) is because I’m fairly certain that because she was not my advisor/thesis chair I can either defend before a 2 person panel or quickly replace her with a largely symbolic third member. Part of me is petrified that things might be far more complictaed than that, but until I hear differently I choose to assume the best. Just thought I’d pass the latest debacle along. I’d make a movie about this, but I don’t think anyone would find it believable enough!

Oh my God…I felt motivated after yesterday and that coupled with a soaking rain all day that made doing much else impossible(a blessing in disguise), I finished a complete rough draft of my thesis this afternoon almost 2 full years after I started writing it in May of ‘06. I’m in a state of shock. My next decision is whether to ship everything off to my advisor immediatley (haven’t been in contact for more than a year)or make the revisions he suggested almost as long ago to the first 4 chapters first, before sending the whole thing off together. I’m sure countless obstacles lie ahead, but there were many days when I thought I would never have a full draft. I’m proud of myself on some level.

I just finished a rough draft of my thesis conclusion, something I figured would never happen not that long ago. Now I’ve got to add a few things to my analysis chapter, which is almost done. In theory I could have a full rough draft done in the next couple weeks. We shall see…

I finished the draft of my analysis chapter about 2 weeks ago. 32 pages total. I always considered that the hardest part, although I’m not sure things will get any easier. I’m one page into my conclusion, so I’m guessing I’m 9-14 pages from having a full draft. That’s gotta be worth something.

Today was my first productive day since my last post. Wrote 5 pages doubling the size of my analysis chapter to 10 total, which means that I finished the first half of it. About 20 pages, give or take left till i have a thesis draft (guessing another 10 pages to finish the analysis and about another 10 for a conclusion) It’s small progress, but I’m still proud of myself. Over the past few months, I’d sort of forgotten that I used to know how to write…

Well, there have been so many other times over the last 12 months when I thought that because of “X” I would finally have to get motivated and find a way to get the thesis done, so I’m not dumb enough to to assume things are going to automatically turn around, but there’s no question I recently got the best kick in the butt yet as I took the step of actually applying for a couple of jobs that require an MA. This means that assuming some of these prospective employers are interested in me, I basically have to finish in the next 2 months or risk losing actual gainful employment in Sept, the most concrete consequence yet to not finishing. Here goes…