In Times of Thesis: Tired and Troubled

So, I pretty much haven't posted in what seems like forever. I realized this a while ago, but since even Tess has written a blog post in between her hour long sessions of writing at the library, I figured I needed to as well. Thesis writing is a bitch. I'd try to think of another, more appropriate term, but I don't really think there is one. It's simply a bitch. My body aches from sitting at a desk, staring at a computer screen, typing away. If there was ever a time where science would prove that your eyes becomes square-shaped if you stare at a screen too long, our theses would probably provide the proof. 

Claire, Birgit and Tess come to the library here in Leiden almost every day. I try to join them twice a week because I get absolutely nothing done at home, but it's hard to travel all the way to Leiden on days where I have other things to do. Travelling just seems like a waste of 2 perfectly useful hours. Thus we sit, inside, amongst the silence broken only by the clickidy-clack of people typing away and the occasional cough. With too much theory in our heads and too much ethnography too recall with it, our minds slowly become hollow and our bodies lethargic. None of the books we need seem to be available in any library, the coffee here is awful, and the weather taunts us with it's beautiful rays of sunny delight. 

So here we sit, isolated from everyday chatter and the daily news, we have become immersed and almost obsessed with that which is our thesis, brilliant insights into things that probably don't matter to anyone but ourselves, and our advisers. As counting the hours becomes counting the minutes and our brilliance slowly begins to fade, another day passes by and we will start all over again tomorrow. I'm honestly amazed at my poetic ability for blogging at this point as I have failed to write so many words as here in my thesis all day. Writing is slow and painstaking, and we suffer in silence (and rather loudly, very publicly on facebook and in our blogs) as we enter the final stage of our academic life. 

Please do note Tess' blog post here if you too are in need of further procrastination, and if that doesn't help. I suppose you could always start a blog of your very own. 

Just 6 more weeks, girls.