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Jun. 20th, 2006 09:35 amLots of thoughts this morning, mainly disorganised, but that's the great thing about keeping a livejournal -- you have the perfect excuse to write them all down and get them straight. I mean I could anyway, I suppose, but I wouldn't feel as though it was time well spent. It's not, really, but it feels more like it, because I have a place to put them when I'm done.
It occurred to me in the shower this morning that my MA was worth my time, more than I actually realised when I was doing it. In a general sense, and also in a specific thesis-based sense.
For me, at the time I was doing it, it was challenging but not "hard" -- difficult, and involving a lot of thinking, but I was within a structure that had safeties built into it, and I had only to do what was required of me to pass. Writing the thesis wasn't some kind of grand effort, though it took a lot of work. It was a process, a series of small steps, and one that I just...went ahead and did. But to the outside world, an advanced degree means something, a thesis means something -- it means you were given something tremendous to do, spanning several years, and you accomplished it. That's proof of something which is very hard to prove: that one is capable of hanging in there and getting the job done.
I suppose LC exists in that way as well. There were times when I thought I'd never finish book two, but finishing two books out of six extant is no mean task. I still doubt if I'll manage all seven, since the longer an AU goes on the further it diverges from canon (by necessity, otherwise you're just vomiting canon back up) and that makes it harder -- I used to be able to toss off a chapter in about two days, and now it takes two weeks. But I'm willing to make a go of all seven, and we'll see how far I get.
In the specific sense, returning to academia, I'm pleased and slightly surprised at what an excellent choice I made with regards to thesis topics. My topic -- masks -- was engaging for me to work on, and I had a lot of fun doing the research. But it was also a good decision because people on the whole are interested in masks and very few know very much about them. Which was kind of part of the point of my thesis, actually. But it was a good PR move because "masks" as a talking point is a good one: people want to ask questions, and because people generally don't know much about them it's very easy to sound knowledgeable. Which I am, I mean I did the work, but it's not always easy to seem that way.
So. No real point to any of that, except perhaps to encourage people in Master's programs to keep plugging away. :D
It occurred to me in the shower this morning that my MA was worth my time, more than I actually realised when I was doing it. In a general sense, and also in a specific thesis-based sense.
For me, at the time I was doing it, it was challenging but not "hard" -- difficult, and involving a lot of thinking, but I was within a structure that had safeties built into it, and I had only to do what was required of me to pass. Writing the thesis wasn't some kind of grand effort, though it took a lot of work. It was a process, a series of small steps, and one that I just...went ahead and did. But to the outside world, an advanced degree means something, a thesis means something -- it means you were given something tremendous to do, spanning several years, and you accomplished it. That's proof of something which is very hard to prove: that one is capable of hanging in there and getting the job done.
I suppose LC exists in that way as well. There were times when I thought I'd never finish book two, but finishing two books out of six extant is no mean task. I still doubt if I'll manage all seven, since the longer an AU goes on the further it diverges from canon (by necessity, otherwise you're just vomiting canon back up) and that makes it harder -- I used to be able to toss off a chapter in about two days, and now it takes two weeks. But I'm willing to make a go of all seven, and we'll see how far I get.
In the specific sense, returning to academia, I'm pleased and slightly surprised at what an excellent choice I made with regards to thesis topics. My topic -- masks -- was engaging for me to work on, and I had a lot of fun doing the research. But it was also a good decision because people on the whole are interested in masks and very few know very much about them. Which was kind of part of the point of my thesis, actually. But it was a good PR move because "masks" as a talking point is a good one: people want to ask questions, and because people generally don't know much about them it's very easy to sound knowledgeable. Which I am, I mean I did the work, but it's not always easy to seem that way.
So. No real point to any of that, except perhaps to encourage people in Master's programs to keep plugging away. :D
