Thoughts on Graduation Day

For the followers of this blog, you may have noticed that I've been silent on the progress of my masteral thesis. I really meant to postpone my posts about it until the study is brought to completion. No matter how I enjoyed data gathering in the field, or how I was eager to share the findings from radio monitoring.

The endeavor taught me a number of things, mostly character and value-related.

1. My friends can attest to how determined and persistent I am especially when it comes to academics. However, I learned that despite hard work, there are things that you cannot control. I had to wait and be patient. The completion of the thesis does not only rely on a student's diligence, but on the availability of professors, resource persons and differing opinions of the panel members.

2. Ruthless as it may sound, my adviser said "You should learn to kill your babies." This means one should be able to let go of what has been written in order to improve the manuscript. I found it hard to delete sentences and paragraphs which I felt should be part of the thesis, but later, I realized there's no way avoiding it as a scholar. You have to honor and trust the wisdom of those who came before you.

3. So be flexible. Make plans but be ready to go on a different path if needed.

4. Set deadlines for yourself. In post-graduate studies, there's no one to pressure you to finish or follow up on the requirements. Instead of beating the deadline, make it earlier than the deadline.

5. Remember what motivated you to take post-graduate studies in the first place. Is it just for a promotion you've been eyeing? For added learning? For the desire to be an educator in the future? Whatever it is, and even if things have changed, just go on and see how you can contribute through what has been started.

6. Have faith and be able to say "May your will be done."

Some of those who were in the same boat would say that the thesis phase can be disheartening. This is true, and I am no exception. It took me years to finish my thesis and it was never smooth-sailing. While there were whispers that said "give up," my dad said "you are near the finish line." I looked at my files and regretted just throwing them away or keeping them in my laptop when someone else should be reading.

I will be blogging about the research topic soon. Bye for now!