This is definitely a feeling everyone has at some point no matter what they are working on. It happens generally in life, in work, and (in our case) grad school thesis projects. I have hit this wall often in the past with various projects. I was in the Monday group to share projects. This was both the dumbest, yet smartest thing I could have done. I pushed for three weeks to complete the paper and get the project started. My project totally turned around from what I had envisioned a month ago but I sprinted to the March 21/22 deadlines. The good news is there was success. I managed to meet the goal and hit the breaks a bit so I can tweak the project and work outside of the whole to get the pieces well developed for next month’s presentation. This week has been tough after Monday, as the let down of some of the stress left me a bit unmotivated to do other things (that and life issues got in the way as well). My attitude adjustment was filling out graduation paperwork. We are there. Only one more hurdle to jump over to bring all of our hard work together. As I have been looking forward the past 11 months, I can’t wait to look back and see what I actually did. See you on the other side:-)
Posted by Bianca at 10:51 PM Labels: assignment, week 4
*sigh*
I had the worst problem getting started on my media project. Well, to be more specific, I had the worst problem getting started on the media portion of my media project. I'd had my idea, a branching dialogue customer service simulation in Udutu, solidified since our first week. I had the whole idea all mapped out, but when it came to actually creating it in Udutu I had the most terrible time getting started. I hummed and hawed and vaguely poked in its general direction until just finally getting it properly rolling and working today (status update: got a great chunk of it in order and I feel confident about having it more than 75% done by the time I do my presentation).
It's not that I wasn't excited about the media project; in fact, I was kind of elated to be putting my thesis materials into practice finally. It's more that I'm starting to just get TIRED.
I've been pushing myself in both my school and work life for the past 11 months and it turns out pushing myself past exhaustion is finally starting to catch up with me. I just want to crawl into a fetal ball and sleep for a month or so to recover. Alas, there's still 5 more weeks to go, so no recovery hibernation for me just yet.
I thankfully hit a second wind (or, well, maybe eightieth wind to be more accurate) today and getting the project to work finally will definitely get me through this week at the very least (although I'm hoping the delight of finally getting a breakthrough will boost my energy for longer).
I'm hoping this will all work out like the exercise class I took the other week. It was my first yoga/pilates/tai chi-style class in a long time and around the middle I honestly thought I couldn't go any further. Not long after that, though, I caught a second wind and by the end of the class I felt fabulous.
So here's to us ALL catching that second wind, making it through the rest of the program, and coming out the other end feeling amazing and refreshed... or, at least surviving the next 5 weeks. Yes, just surviving would suffice ;)
Ugh. I HATE the wall, mostly because I hit it completely unawares. I'll be going along fine and then, "WHAM!" I'm flat on my back with no idea how I got that way.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I rely on my friends for - to periodically adjust my perspective and keep my focus trained where it's supposed to be.
Oh, how well I remember being where you are (it wasn't that long ago, really; if I can't remember, I should probably be concerned). The truth is that I'm not quite far enough away from the memory to be willing to dive into it again. Grad school is a lot like childbirth; it's painful - and it's WORTH it - but you need some distance from the experience to gather up enough deliberate amnesia in order to be willing to do it again.