Going through the Facebook albums of some of my friends, I realise how lucky some of them were for having seen Federer play on the Centre Court at Wimbledon or for having watched a Man United game live. It would have been an exhilarating experience for sure! Well, I did play my part as their friend…and liked all their snaps and commented on a couple of them. Well, as for me… I realise what I did miss!
One might sense a tinge of envy and frustration in my words. It happens to you when all around, you find a sense of excitement and a common sentiment, whereas you are tied up with certain other important things in your life like the Masters Dissertation! For the postgraduate students, the whole of summer is devoted towards the mandatory Masters Dissertation… which counts towards a third of your degree classification.
Whilst the second semester exams were still underway, I could sense the anxiety in a few of my colleagues towards their dissertation as they discussed their plans and deadlines. As for me, I take life as it comes and one at a time. I was neck deep in my preparation for the exams and I hardly had time or inclination to divert my attention. Once the exams were over, I pampered myself with a European trip for two weeks to shed the stress accumulated over the duration of exams.
On my return, I realised that some of my very hardworking colleagues had begun their experiments and had a few sets of readings ready. We had our interim project presentation in two weeks and I set thinking about the milestones I had achieved in the project and the roadmap ahead. I remember being quite nervous before the presentation. I had chalked a plan for my project, had done my background research and set up some realistic goals and only hoped that the supervisors liked it. Well, they looked convinced and so did the scores of my presentation.
However, I realised that I needed to stick to my Gantt chart for the next three months in order to produce a good thesis. The project did begin with a bang but there were periods of lull when actually all I had to do was to wait for replies to my emails. The weather also played hide and seek the whole of summer. There were a couple of days of bright sunshine when you planned to have a barbecue with your friends and then suddenly, you find rain pouring in all its splendour.
I really wanted to go for the Wimbledon tournament and also watch at least one of the events at London 2012. But at the same time, I had a lot of work to do for my project and did not want to lose focus. However, I did catch all the action glued to the television… so as not to miss those magical moments… to watch the victorious Murray break down in tears during the prize ceremony at Wimbledon…or to watch the godly Bolt in action…. or the antics of Farah after the historic win.
As time for submission draws closer, I find all my friends doing their Masters, giving the finishing touches to their thesis. As for me, I am totally overtaken by dissertation blues… and going through the ordeal of writing, referencing and proof-reading. Really looking forward to ending this agony on Friday when I plan to submit my work and get liberated… so that I can enjoy the rest of the great British summer!
Rohit
No comments:
Post a Comment