(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

Okay, so, thesis: I went in and talked to my advisor and said, "You know, I don't have a chapter, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm not really happy with what I'm doing, I don't know if I have any options beyond dropping the thesis entirely, what should I do?" And he went, "Yeah, I kind of got that from your e-mail; you can't apply for an extension but I can, let's talk about what you want to do with the thesis." (To which my reply was, "I kind of want to hack out the classical stuff entirely.")

Anyway, he is e-mailing Honors so that I can get an extension until after Thanksgiving break (I'm not doing anything during Thanksgiving except catching up on sleep and baking something, I might as well write ten pages about visual culture in The Faerie Queene) and I have his copy of The Spenser Encyclopedia and a stack of readings on visual culture in the Renaissance. Which is a lot better than I felt this morning, when I crawled out of bed after six hours of sleep and thought, "I feel like a failure and a fraud and I have wasted my entire undergraduate career, my parents' trust, and my grandparents' money." And then went through the rest of the morning feeling like I was going to alternately throw up and pass out.

On the bright side, yesterday my Latin teacher told me that I was her best student.

Comments

[highlyeccentric]

*hugs you* I -told- you they'd have backup plans.

[bedlamsbard]

*hugs back* I am glad they did! I note they didn't tell the students, just the advisors, though. /wry

[cursor_mundi]

Heee, this is because they know that Deadline Panic is a major production / motivational tool! ;)

Good job on your Latinate Awesomeness, too!

[bedlamsbard]

Heh, from what I can tell, yeah. Plus, anyone who has it enough together to go to their advisor and say, "Hey, I have a problem," is probably someone who will actually use the extension. Or so I assume, anyway.

Thanks! Yay, Latin, I like it.

[cursor_mundi]

That is the logic, indeed. If you can articulate the problem and ask for help, you get help. :D

[bedlamsbard]

That is a good system. I am so glad I have academics on my dwircle, because left to my own devices I would have assumed the only options were "do it now or don't do it at all."

[cursor_mundi]

It is a subtle and crafty way of doing things! ...and it's entirely because we are soft touches. (The Deans think it has to do with "teaching adult behaviors," blah blah, but it's really because there are few academics who enjoy watching students cry.)

[highlyeccentric]

I haven't been cried at yet this semester!

... I cried at some second-years myself, but I was off the clock. *shiftyeyes*

I do wish there were some way of waving a magic wand, or setting up loudspeakers every so often to announce "THERE ARE PEOPLE TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR SHIT. YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO'S KINDA FAILY. NO SERIOUSLY THERE IS SOMEONE SOMEWHERE ON CAMPUS WHOSE JOB IT IS TO HELP WITH WHATEVER IT IS. YOU DON"T NEED TO HAVE ALL YOUR SHIT TOGETHER. JUST ENOUGH OF YOUR SHIT TO ASK FOR THE HELP AND THEN UTILISE IT."

[bedlamsbard]

*twitches* Because I can say from experience that college students cry really easily. (Why yes. I totally cried. On the other hand, I cry at the drop of a hat, which is why I don't like talking to professors, because I hate crying in people's offices.)

[(Anonymous)]

I managed to not cry for three years. And then somehow found myself in my advisor's office SOBBING in senior year.

She plucked a box of tissues from a drawer full of them (I kid you not, half the drawer was nothing but tissue boxes), dropped it in front of me, and said, "Senioritis kicked in, huh?"

[lady_songsmith]

Er, that was me, DW hates me, carry on.

[bedlamsbard]

TISSUES. EVERY STAFF MEMBER SHOULD HAVE THEM. I may start judging professors on whether or not they keep tissues in their offices.