Just submitted the midterm report for my college graduation thesis, and I thought about writing something here to summarize my journey during this period.
Last semester, a teacher told us that our school's thesis was expected to start in January, right after New Year's Day in 2024. But in reality, we were waiting for notification throughout the winter break, but there was no news. To be honest, I was really anxious because my friends from other schools had already started their theses or even started writing their first drafts during the winter break, while I had no idea what topic I should write about. The fear of the unknown suddenly overwhelmed me.
In early March, my friend and I agreed to go to the school because we had nothing to do at home and no job. Staying at home made us restless, so we decided to try our luck around the school and see if there were any job opportunities, which could also count as completing the internship tasks given by the school.
Arriving at the school, everything felt familiar yet unfamiliar. This piece of land, over the past four years, has shown the transformative power of money on the environment. Although it hasn't completely changed, it has undergone significant changes. On the first day, we rested a bit and went to sleep.
The next day came in a blink of an eye. I used to wonder why people in society worried about not being able to support their families. As long as there was a place to stay, even if the salary was slightly insufficient, it could at least subsidize the household expenses. Why would they say they couldn't make ends meet? After experiencing this, I realized that I was still inexperienced and ignorant of the ways of the world. We went to many educational institutions, hoping to find decent and relevant jobs. The main purpose was to fulfill the requirements and not have high salary expectations. We went to three places, all of which offered low pay and heavy workload. They treated "this is an experience for you" as a sweet treat, hoping to satisfy our expectations. Although there was a prior agreement that the purpose was not to make money, can we really treat people like livestock? Working 10 hours a day for a little over 2000 a month. Aside from the fact that this job requires too much time, is there a reason for someone to persist with this salary? It's hard to say. If we put ourselves in the shoes of someone with a family, this amount of money is simply not enough. Maybe they still hold onto the idea that in the era when college students were rushing to work, there was a lot of work but little pay?
After a week at the school, we still hadn't found anything satisfying to do. We initially planned to broaden our horizons and had already prepared for the early work, but we encountered difficulties in finding a place to stay. After a series of setbacks, we gave up a high-paying job offer and returned to the school.
It can be said that we were overwhelmed, and although we were weak, we did give up on the idea of finding a job. Since the current situation is like this, it's better to live well in the final moments of college. Why should we be worn out and saddened by the vicissitudes of life that we will inevitably encounter in the future? In late March, the topic selection notice for the thesis finally arrived. After careful consideration, I chose our social sister Peppa as my topic, using her as a reference to discuss British and Chinese family education.
Casually completing my topic selection and translation, and according to the teacher's advice, I finally managed to complete my first draft with great difficulty. If you ask what I gained from writing it, Peppa Pig recommended my video on Bilibili for a week, I guess that counts?
And then there's the midterm report that I just submitted today. Skipping the unimportant details, I feel like what I wrote could be considered a reversal of the heavens.
In any case, I should have passed the most difficult part by now. It's a pity that other people have several months to write, and they even have the opportunity to be urged by their teachers to submit. According to our schedule, we have three days for topic selection, ten days to submit the first draft, and a month to finish writing and defend the thesis. We can't even imagine having time to procrastinate. We can only hope that the academic garbage we produce won't be too big of a mess.
Since the college entrance examination, I have been unlucky. And over the years, I have treated every misfortune as a challenge, which has become a skill. This school has made many astonishing decisions, and if we were to criticize each one, we would probably become resentful. Since we can't change it, it's better to accept it and think about how to change things that we have the ability to change, rather than staying under the covers and dreaming of a better future.
After writing so much, I realized that I haven't really expressed my opinions on these matters. In general, I don't really care about these things. I'm just one step away from getting rid of them, so there's no need for me to complicate things at this critical moment, right?
Anyway, there's no need to worry too much. There will be more trivial matters to deal with in the future. For now, it's better to let go of unwanted thoughts. From my current perspective, since I can consider this as having passed through many obstacles, I might as well relax and do things I want to do. Instead of exhausting myself and feeling like I can't reach anything every day, it's better to enjoy the present and be carefree.