Tuesday, July 10, 2012

what I'm working on these days

Anyone who regularly reads our blog may have noticed that I haven't been posting very frequently in the last couple months and that when I do they're often very short posts. That probably isn't going to get much better in the next few months. The reason I haven't been doing much here is that I have re-started working on my master's thesis, and it is taking up all my extra time.

Two years ago, I had finished all the coursework for my MA but never done much towards my thesis. After Jamie was born, it all went on the back burner. Then when he was 8 weeks old, we moved to Knoxville. With a newborn who didn't sleep well and no friends or family nearby for support, I never even thought about my thesis or degree once in the next year. When Jamie finally started napping well for me sometime around last August, I found myself with a lot of extra free time in the day. I used it to work on sewing projects and to read all kinds of books. In April, it hit me one day that I could use that extra time to write a thesis. Over the next month or so, I got in contact with my advisor, found out everything I needed to do, chose a topic, and got started reading. 

I am doing an ecocritical study of E. M. Forster's novels. If all goes as planned, I will have my thesis ready to defend in November and will be able to graduate in December. It is not always fun, and I am definitely looking forward to being finished so I can go back to reading whatever I feel like! But I'm really glad I'm doing this. Since I only work on it during Jamie's naptime and after he goes to bed at night (and that time also has to be used for other glamorous things like cleaning the bathrooms and folding laundry), it is going pretty slowly, but I'm getting there. So if you're wondering why I haven't been posting things in a while (and I do have some fun things to write about, including a fun 4th of July visit from my brother Matt), it's because I'm off reading exciting books like The Future of Environmental Criticism or Delusions and Discoveries: Studies on India in the British Imagination 1880-1930. Be jealous.

1 comment:

  1. That is great! Good luck. I'm sure you'll be glad you did it when it's all over. We will look forward to your other exciting times later.

    ReplyDelete