Wednesday 27 February 2013

A reminder

We were in a dissertation writing workshop this afternoon which concluded along these lines: In order to write a successful dissertation, one must own a diary (or a man-bag) and one must delegate tasks. We were given these little oranges (and some string) for an exercise to demonstrate the importance of concise and focused writing that flows in a logical manner with the argument maintained throughout. Sounds simple, right?
At the end of the workshop I drew a smiley face on my orange as a meaningful and personal reminder to stay positive and to focus on the good. To keep looking ahead. 

When life feels like its speeding ahead at a hundred miles an hour, we either sink or swim. There really is no safe and comfortable in-between. We have to just run with it - jump on a speed boat if we must. We just need to have faith that the boat will be kind to us and slow down as it hits the waves and we will have a life jacket as support just in case we fall off.

It is Wednesday evening already. With the exception of yesterday, when I took time out to see lovely people and enjoy lunch time coffee and evening cherry amaretto cocktails, from which I happily wandered home in a semi-drunk glazed over state. So, with the exception of yesterday, this week is one of very weird dreams, reading about integrative counselling, literature reviewing, participating in dissertation experiments while attempting to seek out participants for my own study - much harder than I anticipated. I've been chasing up references, placements, people, people, people, emails. More emails are going in and out of my mailbox than there ever has been. I finally have my first interview with a participant confirmed for next week. And I cannot shake out of my mind the fact that I have no idea where I am positioned on the 'will I/will I not get a place on the post grad course I so desperately want' debate in my head. And having not had a job in two weeks perhaps, I felt the need to subtly email my booker at the agency to remind her that I am still alive.

Below is a picture of my creation today: the 'happy orange'. Because a gentle reminder of the power of positivity is sometimes what we need :)





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