I won't say that I regret writing an English thesis, but I regret writing it in the way that I did, not asking for enough advice from my advisor and depending too much on the preceptor for help. I learned a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses as a researcher and a writer that I think have been instructive to me later in life.

But, as great as that knowledge is, I REALLY could have used all that time to, oh, say, prep myself looking for a good job in a post-graduation, post-bubble recession economy. Senior year was WAY harder than I felt like it needed to be. 2003 was a bad year.

Oh sure, the fall was fine and all, but the pressure of both finding a job AND completing the thesis AND trying to put my whole college education in some kind of context so that I had a sense of what I had to offer the world as a person: important, not fun.

So, unless you love research and critical analysis, unless you know you love it so much you're considering grad school, or unless the topic that you're analyzing is of such interest to you that you feel positive that your interest in it can sustain you not just in school, but afterwards and in some way in your future life, then I wouldn't do it. And if you do decide to do it, then don't believe your preceptor if he or she tells you that it's normal for you to be bored and disillusioned with your own writing. (Maybe this is a U of C thing, though...)

If I were you, especially if going into a creative writing field, I'd be networking, networking, networking, trying to find internships, do side projects, etc. I think it's more fun and way more practical for long term goals--IF, that is, you know what your long term goals are. (Which, of course, I did not at the time, but that's another story.)

As for summer....hmmmm...I was devastated by how expensive airfare to Europe was last year in the summer. Shocked. Shocked I tell you. Granted, I was looking at July and August(peak high season)and I was looking to go to Paris, but I could not find tickets from NYC to London for less than $900!!!! That coupled with the exchange rate. Yuck. You may have better luck flying different dates, but me, I'd take any place in Europe out of the running.

Summer is the off season in SEAsia. If I could fly to Thailand or Vietnam for $1100, then I'm not spending $900 to go to the UK. Also, lots of people speak English in Thailand. Some French too. I've also been wanting to go to Mexico and Buenos Aires for ages.

I've heard wonderful things about Alaska in the summer, particularly about the food!! Everything fresh, local, delicious. Isreal and Morocco I've never been to, but those sound interesting to me, mostly because I've never been in that part of the world.

I am going to Montreal next weekend. I've never been before. I'll let you know how it goes. Montreal in march, though. I don't tink it will be the same!

Laura!

First of all, let me just say the 45-page thing is totally ridiculous. The upper limit for my Master's thesis was 35. Is there like a particular reason they want you to produce so many pages, rather than a really great, say, 25-page paper?

As for advice, I think I lean a little further toward doing the thesis than Beni. I think it totally depends on two things: what you'd be doing with your time otherwise, and whether you want to go to grad school. First of all, if you are totally sure that you don't want to go to any kind of grad school, and you're not excited about writing a thesis for its own sake, I can't think of a good reason to do it.

If you do think you might want to go to any kind of grad school, a thesis would be good because it could be a writing sample, it would look good on an application, and maybe most of all, it would be a good chance to have a faculty member really get to know your work.

But then again, if you think you'll be doing something else during the next year that would accomplish any or all of those goals (say, some kind of major theater project), and that you'll enjoy more, I'd say do that.

I think I agree with some of what Beni said, but I'm not sure I agree with all of it. Networking would be a great thing to do, if that means doing work that impresses your professors and getting to know them. I don't think, though, that you should spend a lot of time stressing about what you'll be doing the day after you graduate, especially if it means not doing the kinds of things that you can only do in college, like writing a thesis, or doing theater work, or just doing really great work in classes and talking about it with professors.

Life is a lot, like, looser, than it seemed like for me, at least, in college. If you don't have something lined up for right after you graduate, you can deal with it later.

I don't have any good travel ideas . . . I didn't see Chicago on that list, but if you get through some of the summer and find yourself out of money for hotel rooms, or something like that, you're welcome on our futon for however long you want. Summer in Chicago is great!

Ah, fun fact: I'll be in Chicago for my spring break (March 22-29) on tour with the gospel choir I sing with here at school. I may or may not take you up on the futon option, but I definitely want to see you guys!

Do Alaska. Get to Denali around late June, when it doesn't really get dark, find yourself a mountain bike, and take it with you on the last bus into the park. Then ride back out (mostly downhill) to the main visitor center. It's quiet, no traffic allowed, and you'll see much more wildlife. Also, do a glacier cruise in Prince William Sound. Kayak if you're feeling more adventurous.

Yay for coming to Chicago! I can't really promise anything about Chicago in March. In fact, March is kind of a crappy month in Chicago. But at least you'll be here for the end of it.

Let us know when/where your performances will be!

I should clarify: by networking, I don't mean go to cocktail parties and pass out your resume. Yick.

I think I mean the same thing that LIz does: participate in projects that you love and enjoy and that will bring you into contact with cool people doing interesting things who may be able to help you out later. These people may be your teachers and professors, or your teachers and professors may be a conduit to these people.

For me, probably the two most beneficial things that I did for myself, in terms of 'networking,' was all the modern dance stuff I worked on, the public policy classes, and volunteer work with the Cambodian Association of Illinois.

And I don't know,I feel like life is a lot looser a couple years after college than right after college, but I still think that final year of college is hard. It could be because I hated that final year with such a passion (not at all unrelated to the work of writing a thesis) that I have firmly imprinted in my brain that feeling from that year and can't let it go.

I do know that practically speaking, my bank account was at just about zero by the time I graduated (although I was better off than some, at least not having mountains of debt) and so the issue about dealing with finding a job when I got around to it was really not so much something I could 'deal with later.'

But I don't think that's what Liz meant anyway. Part of my angst about my senior year was that I found it really hard to find a job that I really wanted, that I really thought was going to give me all the things that I had hoped for, and reconciling myself to the fact that I wasn't going to find that job, at least not right away, and that I'd have to do a million things outside of work to position myself for other work.

And you know what? Now I have the kind of job that I was interested in before, and that I like, AND IT'S THE SAME. I still have to do a million things outside of work to position myself for better work or for better pay or for better politicking orw whatever. It just doesn't ever end. And then, and then, if you're me, you start to get bored of this job that you loved too, and here you go again....