If You Don't Start, You Won't Finish | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: If You Don't Start, You Won't Finish | Previous Challenge Entry
By Karen Grimm
01/23/06
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When Dr. Jackson stopped to buy bread in the store where I worked, she seemed like a character from another lifetime. In that lifetime I had been a promising graduate student, and she had been my thesis advisor. I was embarrassed for her to see me in the store. She asked me how the proposal was coming, and I stammered that well, I really hadn’t had time to work on it very much lately. In truth, I hadn’t even thought about it for months. I was not sure I knew where the materials were.

“Be careful,” she warned, “or you will end up being the best educated convenience store cashier in town.”

“But I just don’t have time” I complained. “In the evenings there isn’t a quiet moment. I help the kids with their homework and then it’s time for bed. Weekends I often work, and my days off are filled with housework and errands, if I’m not too tired to move. Sometimes I have an hour or two to myself, but by the time I find my books and review my notes, it’s time to do something else. I never even get started.”

“That’s just the problem,” she replied. “You’ve got to get started. If you don’t start, you won’t ever finish.”

“Work on your proposal every day, even if it’s just fifteen minutes. Put one sentence on the paper. But do it every day. Go home today and get started. Work for a half hour when you get home, and do it every day. A lot of students never get around to writing their thesis and never graduate. Don’t be one of them.”

That night I went home, tired, and spent half an hour finding my notes. I found a list of books and articles I needed for the literature review. The next day after work I stopped by the university library, copied a few articles, and checked out an armful of books. The day after that I read one of the articles. Some days I had an hour or even two to work, and wrote several pages of notes. Other days I only glanced at them before I went to bed.

I began to feel like a student again. When I went to work, I wasn’t a convenience store clerk any more, I was a graduate student who happened to work at a store.

In six months I had literature review and abstract to show the committee. For a year, I worked on the proposal, one or two paragraphs a day. It became a routine, and I was surprised one day to find myself writing the last paragraph.

I still had to collect the data, analyze it, and write up the results. That took four years.

In the final writing stage, a relative generously offered to help me financially so that I could quit the job and write full time. Then my hard disk crashed. Another family member bought me a used computer. I had faithfully backed up my work, but the backup disks were unreadable. Apparently the floppy drive had gone bad just before the hard disk did. Fortunately I had printed out hard copies of my work, but I had to type it all in again. I had to request an extension from the dean.

Finally, I was ready to defend. The committee accepted my thesis. I began to print out my final draft. And then my printer broke down. A friend let me print at her house, and I turned the manuscript in to the graduate office with an hour to spare before the deadline.

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