dual*ities

I was supposed to start working on a training program with CORD this week. In fact, I’ve been looking forward to the said project for months now. First, it would give me a justifiable break from my thesis. (Harhar.) Second, I really could use a change of environment, since staying and working at home all day (and night) is really becoming a bit of a stretch for me. (Like I was telling my friends the other day, maybe my unease with the whole set-up isn’t brought about by the thesis work that I have to do per se, but by the idea of staying home, which I haven’t gotten used to yet.) Lastly, the said venture is work that I’d actually get paid for. And that definitely would be a first this year, since most of the work that I do with the organizations I am affiliated with are on a pro bono basis. Not that I’m abandoning my ideals of ‘championing the spirit of volunteerism’ and all that. All I’m saying that it would be nice to get compensated for your efforts once in a while.:)

So yah, as I was saying, I’ve been excited to take on this new project for the longest time. Until a week ago, that is. Why the change of sentiments? Well, mid-last week, I realized that I had underestimated the amount of time that should go into the coding of data for a qualitative research such as mine. Yup, after four months of living and breathing it, I’m still nowhere near being done with my thesis! And with the CORD project coming up, almost one whole month will have passed until I can get back to working on my thesis again, which will probably make me one ultra-harassed and haggard grad student the whole month of June! Hence, towards the end of last week, I was half-wishing to myself that the said project won’t push through, just so I could devote more time into tweaking my thesis data. Of course, I wasn’t really banking on that happening since I already made the commitment months ago.

Then Friday morning came…and with it, a text message from CORD saying that—yes, you guessed it right—the training program that I was supposed to handle got postponed! Boy, was I relieved. Talk about coincidence (i.e. me wishing it would get postponed, and then it did!). Or perhaps it’s just pure blind luck. But then again, maybe Somebody up there was listening and just giving me the leeway that I need (although not necessarily deserve) to finish my thesis.

Upon receiving that news, my mind latched on to two thoughts. I guess you could call them resolutions. The first one is that I really should make good use of the whole month of May and be as productive as I can so as not to put the ‘grace period’ that has been granted me to waste. The second one is that I should start saving more and spending less on r & r activities, since additional income won’t be coming in anytime soon.

Somehow, I suspect that the latter 'resolution', though more clear-cut, would be a lot more challenging to keep. Haha.

Good luck to me!:)