Final Senior Thesis Thoughts...Ever - Journal 8

I just finished the revisions to my thesis paper. All I have to do is turn it in and then I'm done. After sending the first draft of my final paper to Dr. Bisha, my only edits that I had were minuscule and easy to accomplish. I have a lot of bitter-sweet feelings with being done. I would love to be able to do more work in this area when I get older, but truthfully, I have no idea if it will go anywhere. So that's where the bitterness comes from. The sweetness comes from me truly being proud of myself for the work that I've done. I saw myself go from the most timid Communication Studies major my Freshman year, to being blown away with myself re-watching my speech.

I've been working on this project for 9 months now. I can officially say this project was like a full-term pregnancy. There were mood swings, hormone imbalances, stress, lots of junk food, and I spent a lot of time preparing for it. Weird metaphor, I know, but it seems fitting in my situation. We spend months perfecting our projects, in hopes that they can one day turn into something successful. I've watched this project grow through the months, much like fetus does. I think that most of all, I have a sense of relief.

This project has taught me more about myself than I thought it would and I think that is a really good thing. I've learned a lot of time management skills. Like, a lot. For the first time in my life I didn't procrastinate this project because I truly wanted it to turn out perfect. I spent days at a time just tweaking things here and there and sending it to professors to make sure that it looked and sounded good. I worked on my presentation for two weeks straight, instead of just the week of. I began revisions for my paper before Easter Break, and wanted to have a solid amount done by then, which I did. When I returned from the break, I hit the ground running with this paper and am not stressing about the deadline or whether I will finish in time with the right word count. I would like to personally thank this project for my new-found time management skills because they truly saved me from numerous mental breakdowns this semester.

As I get ready to turn in my paper, I still worry about things being perfect, but I know that I've truly put my all into this project and this paper and that there's nothing else I can do with it, besides hope for the best that I can get an A. :)