Writing a one year master thesis, how it all ended!

As can be read below I have finished a one year master thesis! What I forgot to write about in the last post was the later months of the writing.

All right, so there I was, I had spent 2 (two) years on this project, and had no feeling of getting closer to the finish line. Actually, I had decided to put in another six months and then take a break. So, yeah, I was tired of it, real tired! During the summer working and writing, I had searched and found a theory. At the end of the summer I had submitted a draft to my supervisor, and as always I got several pages of notes from our meeting. I was not done! Now autumn had come and I worked with the notes and sent in another draft, got some notes back about 3 (three) pages worth. This had been our way of working, me submitting drafts and getting notes, working with the notes, making a new draft and submitting it, and so on.

About this time or perhaps some months before, I got this feeling that maybe I was not worthy writing the thesis. Possibly I had not shown myself worthy for the Saami god that handles the animals and is closely tied to the bear (Leib-olmai), or perhaps the bear himself did not think of me as worthy. So, I sent an e-mail to a Saami academic with these thoughts and she answered nicely and gave me some thoughts to ponder. But the thought of my worthiness lingered and I almost went out to the woods to sit there with a drum trying to make contact…!

However, without visiting the woods I started working with the last notes. At this time I had finished my work and could spend whole days with the thesis. When I was done with the notes, I realized that I needed to do some more work with the theory and method section. So I did that. Now I had to redo parts of the analysis. I had also read through a really good thesis that used the same method, so I “borrowed” that structure for my thesis. This meant that the introduction chapters also got revised. When I had done that I sent a draft without the discussion and conclusion chapters, because I wanted to see if I had done some progress or not. It seemed that I had done so! Now the time had come to write the discussion and conclusion! And when I had made a new draft with them, a light of hope was lit that I just might be able to submit it for the seminary in January!

I am not sure what it was that got me to do some good thesis writing that autumn, if it was the thoughts on my worthiness towards the bear, or if it was something else. But it really felt like I was on my way moving forward, which had not been the case for some time…

And now for something completely different! After the seminary I went to a café to sort of pick up the pieces and to get some food, and also to write down my experiences of the day. Later that evening I met up with some friends for an event called Drink and draw. It is an event where boys and girls meet and drinks and draws! Well, the first comic made by the gang that evening featured me and here it is!