I just came across a great post that paints a rather brutal picture for my upcoming year of thesis work – Jenny Ryan recently completed her thesis and describes the process:
“Looking back, I see that the stress I put myself under, however much I rationalized the need for it, took a serious toll on my health, and ultimately affected every other realm of my life in the process. Take this blog, for example. I had all but abandoned it this past month, and for the most part it has been mostly a repository of snippets of my thesis and musings related to my research. In focusing my energies on the single-minded pursuit of one aspect of my life, I became unwell and overwhelmed.”
The whole post can be found here.
It sounds like things have much improved since handing it in thankfully. I’ve already felt the effects of stress completing regular course work (i tend to enjoy a breakdown at the end of each semester, as part of my drama queen nature), and I was looking forward to a more relaxed research process – but clearly I was dreaming!
Posted by lorenz on May 22, 2008 at 12:50 am
Hehe, sounds familiar. See here what danah boyd writes: