I decided towards the end of my sophomore year that I wanted to write a thesis. I had just finished my Study and Writing of History class with Robin Fleming (who, if you haven’t heard, is a genius), and I absolutely LOVED spending the semester researching and writing on a topic of my choice. So when my two fabulous professors took me to lunch and said they thought I should write a thesis my senior year, I knew I had to embrace my inner history nerd and go for it.
By the spring of my junior year, I had settled on a topic: comparing documentary photography from different eras in American history. I began slowly accumulating books for my own personal library, which now reside in my bottom desk drawer, under my bed, and under my desk (I swear sometimes they multiply on their own). I have countless pages of notes from the books I’ve read and a never-ending list of photographs to examine, and occasionally (read: always) I think it will never get done.
Now, I know that spending over a year thinking about one topic, researching it, and writing an 80-page paper may not seem like the most appealing thing to some of you. I’ll admit, from time to time (particularly when I’m in the library for my tenth straight hour and my friends are going to a Red Sox game or Dave and Buster’s), I wonder why on earth I would commit myself to spending months and months researching one thing. Am I insane? Am I actually the biggest nerd ever? (Well, yes, but we can get to that another time.)
Sometimes, it never seems to end, I won’t pretend that’s not true. Sometimes, staying in the library after I’ve finished all my work for the next day to read for another two hours when I could go home and watch Parks and Rec instead seems like the worst thing. But it’s worth it. You’ll have those moments when everything connects, and I promise you, they’re worth any stress and frustration you experience leading up to those little epiphanies you have every now and then. For weeks now, I had been trying to figure out how to organize my thesis, and suddenly, while I was in the library late one night, it just came to me, and it’s those moments that are the most rewarding.
So yes, I’m in a complicated relationship with my thesis. It consumes large chunks of my free time, it’s constantly demanding my time and attention, and sometimes, I feel like I’m getting nothing in return. But if given the chance to start over, I’d do it again, 100%. So for all you juniors out there (and sophomores and even freshmen, though I don’t want to terrify you), just think about it. It may seem daunting and like more work than you want to do your senior year, but I absolutely love not only getting to spend the year researching a topic that really interests me, but also having the opportunity to work with amazing professors and to spend my Monday afternoons in our slightly dysfunctional, but wonderful honors seminar.