Road to Graduation

(Taken: Feb 12, 2015)

“Life Is Like A Carnival Ride, It Has Its Ups, Its Downs, And All Its Twerks. But We All Know That In The End It Was Fun And Worth The Wild Ride” -Terrin White

I'm on my last days of my stay here in our university. And now, I can feel the pressure and the stress from my thesis. I have some free time, but I'm too tired to make a life out of it. I guess my thesis life has isolated me from the world. Doing thesis is literally draining- physically, mentally and spiritually. I remembered what my thesis adviser told us during our consultation, "Don't let your thesis manage you, you manage your thesis". She also told us that our lives doesn't only revolve around writing thesis and doing experiments, life means something more. Though I often forgot that I still have life outside. In addition, balancing life is important -social, physical and spiritual to be more productive.

In spite of her advises, the situation hadn't gotten better. My experiment is so long and full of uncertainties. I don't know what's waiting for me, but what I know is that I have to have good results and accomplish everything on second week of April. But I'm too exhausted. I'm tired of going to the lab and doing experiments. By the way, I do microbial and chemical analysis in the lab. Mind you that it's no joke. I can't imagine my life doing things like those everyday. The smell of agar still stinks in my nose even when I'm at home. I don't know, there are just times that I just want to end everything, I want to give up. You know that feeling when all you want to do is to watch how the skies changes colors and how the birds fly freely. My mind is always occupied of worries and anxiety. Time passes quickly and it's March and I'm not even half way through it. I'm not sure how, but what I know is that I will graduate this June 2016. No matter how impossible it is to finish everything with so little time, I will graduate this June 2016. And I'm claiming it. You know that determination when everything is against you, well I'm learning how to do it.

Here are the things that I've learned while doing my thesis: (This might come in handy for you readers)

1. The importance of planning

2. Researching and researching

3. Don't hesitate to ask questions when in doubt. It's always better to ask and be sure than doing the wrong things all the way

3. Be patient with the people whom you are interacting (especially in laboratories)

4. Read and understand the methods

5. Scheduling of activities (laboratory experiment). In my case, I learned to put the exact time of the day to when to conduct the specific experiment.

6. Asking for the divine intervention. No matter how hard you research and followed the methods, sometimes, time won't favor you. Certain things may arise that may cause errors to your experiment. I know it, been there.

Failing is a part of doing the experiment. I've failed to understand and meditate the instructions, causing me to repeat it all over again. But hey, the more I fail, the more I learn. Doing my experiments has challenged my whole being. I learned the importance of positivity and supernatural faith. Graduating from my UP is not easy as 1,2,3 or as simple as A,B,C for though there may be ups and downs, at the end of the day, I know that this thing is worth it.

We all have stories to tell, I wonder what's yours.