First Meltdown: Monday - 4 AM

It's started.

The "I-can't-do-this-how-am-I-going-to-do-this-I'm-so-bloody-tired-oh-my-god-it's-4-AM-and-I-have-to-be-up-in-two-hours." You know what I'm talking about.

Oh yes, it's started. I've had my first stress meltdown. And so much earlier than I thought. Well, better now than in bloody September, I guess.

For my thesis, I want to look at post-secondary education and how students transition from not being in post-secondary school to being in post-secondary school. Don't ask me to be more specific now - that's my all for the moment.

I have been reading material for about 3 weeks now. Reading, reading, reading...stuff on college and university and students and drop-out and why they drop out and why they don't drop out and then....ahhh....facebook (to keep me sane and up on my ex-boyfriends).

And I've realized...MY GOD THERE IS SO MUCH STUFF OUT THERE.

At least 3 billion people have done graduate work. No - what is the world's population? 6.8 billion? OK, more people have done bloody graduate work. And it is starting to feel many of them studied students and post-secondary stuff. Cripes.

But I am learning one of the most important lessons in doing your MCS - how to fish.

I am a fisherman, says my advisor. Catch some, let some of the others go. You can't catch all the fish in the sea.

Good advice - she is right. It is impossible to read it all. After 5 years and 7 courses, you'd think that I would have learned this already, right?

No. Even after all those papers and courses, I still approach each paper like a total virgin. I think that I will have the time to read so much and get such a deep and well-informed understanding of the issue I'm looking at and all the many issues around it. And how they all connect - yes - I'll include that in the paper, too.

Seven times I have been shocked at how I've had to buckle down, cut the crap, and focus on one tiny, miniscule, microscopic area and the specific papers that deal with that area and nothing else. Nothing else! Well-rounded well-informed learning? Ha. Just get the damn paper done!

Well, I hate to say it but the literature review is not terribly different. Sure, you get a bit more time to review a bit more stuff (and are expected to review a bit more stuff) but ultimately it is a cut-the-crap-and-get-'er-done deal, too.

So when it's your turn to do your lit review, remember - fish.

Thus far I have caught three guppies and many, many, old boots.