making progress

Well, it seems as though I have made more progress in the past week than in the past month – and it feels good. A while ago I mentioned that I have been waiting for some really important things to be followed up, which had temporarily stalled a few projects. Of course, in true life fashion, everything has hit all at once. But in a strange way, I couldn’t be more relieved. After all, there is only so much banana bread a girl can make while waiting for emails to be followed up. 

So what has been happening? Well, firstly, I submitted my last assignment for my final course, as well as presenting a group assignment on the same day. Although group work is normally synonymous with collaborative torture, I honestly had the most amazing partner who made the process not only incredibly easy but even enjoyable (you know you are working with someone special when they have their own colour A3 printer). So now I only have a final exam left for this subject and I am done. 

I also collected the data for my thesis last week. Over the past few years, I have had more and more exposure to working with qualitative data (interviews, focus groups etc.). Excuse my total geek moment here – but this was the first time that I had done everything myself; from creating a discussion guide, running a focus group, transcribing the recording and analyzing and writing up the data. So I am probably more excited about it than I should be. 

A few days of (mostly) uninterrupted writing (the GC600 V8 car race and jet flyby was a little loud to ignore), and I have even managed to get the majority of the methods, results, and outcome measures written.

Whilst I still have a fair bit of writing to do, for the first time all year, the end is in sight. Given that the draft is currently 110 pages and 27,000 words total plus, I am somewhat curious (albeit, a little apprehensive) to see what the final result will end up at. It’s going to be fun editing. Not. 

In amongst all of this thesis enjoyment, I have also written and submitted a research proposal to do a Ph.D. next year in positive psychology and resilience. After months of emails, phone calls, and skype meetings with researchers all over the world, to finally have a supervisor and project lined up, as well as having completed the admissions and scholarship applications feels pretty surreal. Whilst it’s hard to know if everything will be accepted, and actually getting in would mean some massive life changes ahead, even just getting to this point feels like a massive achievement. 

With 5 weeks left of practicum placement, 6 weeks left of my Masters, and 8 weeks until Christmas (who else is as excited about Christmas as I am?), I feel as though if I blink, I could miss the whole thing. I have even started to make plans for what I will do on my holidays (a trip to Sydney, making a gingerbread house, girls nights with friends, random adventures…). Plus, I have decided that when I finish, I am going to learn to horse ride (last time I graduated I decided to learn to paint – so strange post-uni skill learning crises seem to be a coping mechanism). 

xx Liz