The Journey of Seven Psychos

When a journey ends, what the public often sees is the end product of the said journey. They have no idea what happened in between... I think the most important part of the journey is not only the beginning nor the end, but also the "process" to how an individual got to the end.
Our journey was not a path lined with roses, rather, it was an obstacle course that tested every fiber of our patience and willpower. Our journey started the day after the picture you see above. That day we celebrated our beloved Ange's birthday and the success of our Pinning Ceremony. It was the beginning of our journey as Fourth year Psychology students.
What the seven of us have endured goes beyond mere words. I'm guessing the lower years who saw us gathering in the canteen must've thought that we're quite a merry bunch, they only saw our smiles, but they had no idea that we were there eating our troubles away (haha!). What have we gone through??? Fourth year life is a war zone, but it never took away our sense of humor nor did it suck the joy from our lives. How did we survive it? Easy, we worked bloody hard. We didn't party, we studied (crammed on some days). What's our secret? FOOD (haha). Really, mostly ice-cream- we usually drown our sorrows with trips to Pipo's or just your regular Magnolia ice-cream.
The hard part of the journey is practically over for us. We're done with the Oral Defense. We were all there for each other when we had our respective Oral Defenses and well, we were pretty damn happy to hear that all seven of us made it.
So you see, that is what the public saw during the Research Forum today, when we presented our studies. They saw the end product from months of work toiling restlessly, burning the midnight oil, and praying to God plus all the saints and (soon to be canonized saints) in heaven that our study will be approved . They did not see our moments of paranoia, insomnia, and etc.- we're lucky we didn't end up in a psych ward... though we did have our moments.
Anyway, my point here is, the war zone was intense, it was a tough battle, none of us came out unscathed- I think we aged in the process we're old waaaaaaaahhh...... Digressing aside, it's actually a fun and trying experience at the same time, but as I said during the Pinning Ceremony no journey would be worth it without the other six people who shared it with me.

So for would-be researchers and incoming Fourth year students, remember these rules in surviving your senior year and thesis making.
1. Pick a partner you can work with- someone who is truly dependable. Someone who can motivate you and probably scare you to work. (haha)
2. If you do not have a partner. Kudos! all you have to worry about is to manage your time well.
3. Never underestimate the time alloted for revisions or data gathering. Just work on it right away- never and I mean never dawdle.
4. Listen and never argue with your adviser or panelists
5. LOVE your study. get to know your study soo well you can talk about it in your sleep ( that happened to me by the way)
6. Oh... really, the Oral Defense isn't that hard. It only becomes hard if you don't know your study that well. so again go back to no. 5- love your study.
7. Pick a good school / company for your internship. 200 hours is a looooooooong time so better find a place that won't feel like prison, pick a place where you might like to work and learn bla bla.
8. Pass requirements on time, never be absent...
9. Keep all your certificates from seminars (you'll need them)
10. Eat ice-cream. Really it does wonders for one's shattered sanity.

When all else fails, pls approach your Guidance Counselor.

To do list

An interesting week is laid out before me... it's 1: 43 am and I'm officially without rest for the third weekend in a row. Right now we're revising our thesis as suggested by our panelists- hmm... they said "minor" revisions, it feels like a ton of revisions to me (not that I'm complaining). WIth the speech finals over with, what else do I need to cross out on my to do list? 1. Filipino psych community work on Self Awareness plus an Article on a topic that interests me. 2. Work on this play room project for psych 32 (which I think will be fun ^_^). 3. Present thesis to all the psych students on Friday. 4. AH.... pass 6 hardbound copies of thesis, a poster / tarp, and a short note. Busy, busy, busy... my head is spinning with things to do. You'd think that passing the Oral Defense was enough, and that I'd finally get some rest Ha! man was I wrong. I feel like a hamster running on a wheel, i want to stop, but the bloody wheel just keeps turning .
Oh well, I guess i'll have to turn to some comfort food tomorrow.

Oral Defense

The thesis oral defense is basically a sink or swim situation- you thread unknown waters hoping to God that you'll live through the ordeal.
For me it wreaked havoc on my psychological and physical well being- in a sense that I was becoming paranoid (having recurring nightmares about failing the defense) ergo, many sleepless nights. On the day itself , the prospect of holding down food was impossible, my stomach churned something fierce and as I watched the clock ticking painfully slow, I wished so badly that it would increase the pace so I could get the whole thing over with. Ten o'clock AM finally came, oddly enough as I entered the room where our oral defense was being held, and as I faced our three panelists plus our thesis adviser; I was pretty calm.What transpired in that room was a complete surprise to me, I didn't expect the defense to turn out that way.
We (My thesis partner (BOn) and I) were momentarily dismissed for the panelists to deliberate our fate. A couple minutes later, the hallelujah chorus could be heard in the confines of my euphoria drugged mind after it was announced that we had passed (with minor revisions).
I'm Graduating? well, passing the defense is one of the requirements that one has to complete (plus a couple more) but regardless of the minor details- I passed the defense! the difficulty of completing every other requirement would pale in comparison to the sheer gut-wrenching moments I spent preparing, proposing, and defending our thesis.
FREEDOM!!!! All seven of us in our batch namely: Anna, Ange, Debbie, Ray (Bon), Tinay, Trish (moi) , and Vincent, have survived the perilous waters and can finally come up for air. Felicitations people!!!!
It's finally over- well, we still have to do the revisions, submit 6 hardbound copies of the thesis, a poster, and a short note. Technically, the work isn't over yet, but at least we're done with the hard part right???