Journeys
Thesis Writing: Sailing and Wailings
In a few days, I will have concluded a chapter in my life. Five chapters, actually-- master's thesis chapters. I've been on this thesis writing journey for more than a year and it is the only thing that stands between me and my master's degree. Lamentably, a considerable amount of time was lost because of some inevitable circumstances along the way. With all the wailing moments, I almost thought I could never finish. Now, though, whenever I think about this journey, all I hear is the bookbinder's thread journeying through the pages as it ties together the spine of my thesis. And that thought automatically turns off the urge to snivel.
As if I've not had enough of actual thesis writing (or maybe because I've overdosed on it) I continually get reminded that my life really is like a thesis. One day, and not so intentionally, I started to conduct research on my own life. The dependent variable (DV) was the level of my satisfaction, as a whole and in terms of: a) home life, b) love life, c) social life, d) student life, e) professional life, and f) spiritual life. The possible responses were: "high", "unsure" and "low". The independent variables (IV) included daily schedules and commitments, emotional quotient, intelligence quotient, number of real friends, availability of good food and music, frequency of travels, and frequency of nags from an excited (impatient?) mother. I was tempted to add as IV my daily coffee consumption, but I realized I should reserve the bigger subjects of investigation for later-- if you know what I mean.
Although I was the only respondent to my own study, data gathering was not any less hard than what I did for my master's thesis (I distributed exit survey questionnaires to tourists in the pre-departure area of the airport).
After investigation and testing, I found out that my level of satisfaction was "high". It still is (promise, coffee consumption is not a variable). The different dimensions (in the DV) in my life are in optimistically good shape. The only thing is that, for as long as I'm journeying through life, this research will never really end. And, as a matter of recommendation, I will need to scrap off an item as a dimension in the DV: love life. This does not have to be listed as a separate dimension, because it really permeates all the other dimensions. There's love in the home, among special friends, for school, for work and from God.
And, if by any chance in the future you hear about me wailing, then I must be in the process of writing my dissertation--for school and for life. Journeys can't always be smooth sailing. I don't think I'd want it to be. For one thing, I'll miss my coffee.