It is easy to feel alone on the journey that is a summer full of academic writing, navigating departments where half the staff is on holiday, and consuming more tea than was spilled in the Boston Harbour. You may even experience some of the following in the three months you have to compile 12,000 - 25,000, often more words on a subject which apparently, you are supposed to be knowledgeable in.
Denial
You may find yourself sometime in May or June talking yourself out of productivity, because you are in denial about the actual length of time it will take you to write a sturdy piece of academic material. You have three months, right? That's plenty of time to actually enjoy some summer before getting down to it in a month...or two...
Avoidance
Everyone is going on holiday. Your Instagram and Facebook feeds are full of images of bikinis and warm, sandy beaches, and sunshine. You look longingly outside and then something snaps. You deserve a vacation, summer only comes once a year after all, enjoy it while you can! School's out for the summer!
Family Visits
If you are an international student, you may be expecting an onslaught of friends and relatives keen to join you on your international adventure, minus the academic responsibilities. Lucky for you, they want to do some more travel and you to join them! And entertain them! And spend all the loan money! And forget about that silly dissertation! Which brings us to...
Reality
Suddenly, it's mid-July, and the panic hits. Where has the time gone? July is still summer, but also almost not-summer, so should you just sit and read a good book until you reach that definitely-not-summer stage? You've got a number of emails from a strange person called "Advisor" asking for updates and meetings...
HOWS YOUR DISSERTATION GOING?
Desperation
The end of July rolls around and you've done some reading, some highlighting, some outlining, and maybe even written an introduction (just don't be bragging about it, you high-achiever) but still haven't gotten into the meat of the dissertation. You sit with a blank word document and all your notes around you like you have for so many essays in the past few years of your life as a student, but this feels different. So you cry a little, you drink copious amounts of tea and coffee, you buy £40 in LUSH bath bombs because #treatyoself and basically stop functioning as anything other than a couch burrito.
Reluctant Acceptance
August 1st. You've dreaded seeing this date on your iPhone screen for months now and at last, it is here. You set up a productivity station, you Instagram a photo of how academic and/or pretty it looks and open up that blank document that is almost as offending to look at as Clippy the Office Assistant. You vow to write 1,000 words a day, and give yourself a few days of just revision to look back over whatever insanity you wrote to reach your daily count. Wether you stick to this method or end up making it all up at the last moment, August is one hell of a downer.
There will be those who try to distract you, who do not understand, and who plainly are just purely annoying based on the fact they were able to complete a rough draft a month before you even opened a word document. Sometimes it may seem more tempting to take the certificate and run, rather than endure the pain and suffering of a dissertation summer. When the hopelessness strikes and you feel you just can't do it anymore, remember you are not alone, and many have gone through this before you and many will after. There is no right way to getting your dissertation done, and frankly if it gets finished at all that is what really matters in the end.
Drink tea, get a great Spotify playlist going, and power through August. You got this.
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