Five minutes ago, as the Aztecs were winning against Temple, I completed the introduction to my thesis. Technically, all I finished is a first draft, but considering that's all I've been working for about the last two weeks, I count this moment as a major victory.
Sadly, more than half of this 20-page introduction was already written when I started working on it last month. I just had to reorganize the information, add additional information, and include a few structural details. A lot of structural details.
I think writing may come easily for some writers, but not for me. I simultaneously love and hate the precision of writing versus speech. It's true that with writing I can choose exactly the right word and the most effective word order, but with those choices comes anguish. Out of the many, many ways I can approach a topic, which one do I want to choose?
I've been working on another piece of the thesis too over the last month. The literature review. This is where I summarize previous research and show that I'm adding to it. I'm 80 percent there and just have to tie quotes together and show that I'm building on it.
I really want to be able to take the intro and lit review and a chapter into my professors on Tuesday and ask them to review these things over Spring Break. Once these are really done, once I have comments and suggestions for improvement, then I will feel like I'm making progress.
But right at this moment, I'm just incredibly grateful to be done with something.
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