Thesis and Graduation: A Journey of Real World.
September 2016.
It was the first time in my life, I got to know with you, Thesis. For someone who chose to study International Relations due to parents such as myself, It was indeed difficult to start what kind of research I should conduct and analyse. I, who always believe that enrolling to IR is a big mistake and feel that Psychology or HR Management is the best, decided not to begin any initiatives on it. I was more interested doing something else which is enjoying organisation life, AIESEC. I had never been more interested in doing HR related things, either in recruitment or development, and still had no idea why I was doing things quite right in IR during that time.
First several months of my thesis life would be very frustrating. It was because my thesis proposal was rejected by one of my supervisor, Mr. Gonda Yumitro. He asked me to find something different in the country I had decided, Afghanistan, a country where war and conflict were part of their daily life. A country that had been destroyed by cruelty of war and timeless internal and external conflicts. After doing researches about Afghanistan, I decided to be more focused on its cooperation with India. Both states have always been a long time friends during their peace and dire times. I proposed that title to him and he finally accepted as he also warned me about proofs should be prepared well.
I was relieved and excited to do the hard work part. Yes, it is really a hard work because I had to fight against procrastination, depression, anxiety, etc. I even went to a spiritual journey for Islamic people which called as Omra. During my omra journey, I endlessly prayed to the Almighty God and asked him to make my thesis journey something to be proud of. I enjoyed the moment there, feeling the peace and tranquil atmosphere, and the willingness of people who did the same thing as I was. After omra, my spirit has been rekindled and more than ready to continue my thesis.
March 20th 2017, the day I presented my thesis proposal toward my examiner, Mr. Haryo Prasodjo or I’d rather called him as Kanjeng. I only had one supervisor to accompany my proposal exam, Mr. Najamuddin Khairurrijal. The proposal went much better than I expected. It was not so serious as I thought, and it turned to be a very funny, awkward, and relaxed, Thank God for your blessings. I had to skip my thesis for one month due to my part time job in the department’s office in campus. The experience there was so fun because I could get to know my lecturers deeper and better than other students.
After a month of hiatus, I came back to do thesis consultation and bring the second chapter also to make my progress faster. I couldn’t believe it was so quick to get continue to the third chapter of my thesis from Mr. Naja and a little bit difficult from Mr. Gonda, but I tried to endure it and believe it was worthwhile. I had to skip again my thesis progress for two months and just spend my time in home playing games and searching data for my thesis even when I came back to my dormitory in Malang. Time flew so fast as I was not realized that August has came and I missed my opportunity to graduate that month. Now, I had to be serious and starting to focus for the last period of graduation, November 2017.
I spent a whole month in September doing the chapters left for my thesis. It was harder because I had to prepare requirements for thesis exam’s registration such as photographs, important documents, payment bills, etc. But, I told to myself if there was any chance to do I should do it now. Fortunately, I got my supervisors’ acceptance to thesis exam just in the last days of September and I could register myself for the next month’s thesis exam.
October 2017, the month of my thesis exam came, it made me having mixed feelings. Happy because I had finally achieving one more step to be a fresh graduate, anxious because I was not sure that the result would be well enough, and stressful because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to deliver my presentation in an efficient and simple way. I had another examiner whose name is Mr. Dion, whom I thought to be a very intimidating, cold and serious person. Once again, my thesis proved to be wrong, it turned to be a very calm, funny, and a little bit awkward (again the same situation from my thesis proposal). The result just came in five minutes later and I noticed something weird from them, but I didn’t know that they were going to tricked me with a very strange announcement.
I was told that I need to do revision within three days to know that if I had passed the thesis exam or not. I just agreed and my friend just left a box of doughnut to my lecturer’s table. After having prayer, I went to having lunch in the small stoop near my part time place. Oh, I had been a part time officer two days before my thesis exam. Okay, back again to the small stoop, I had lunch with three of my classmates (two girls attended my thesis exam although a little bit late) and I got a message that I passed the exam. One week later, I finished my thesis revision and hurried to register for my graduation ceremony. My graduation ceremony didn’t run well because I got myself vomit and made people around angry, but it couldn’t be helped since I was not used to have breakfast very early. After ceremony, I was glad that I could meet my friends and having an unforgettable moment with them.
Dear thesis, it was nice to know and have a journey with you. But I won’t experience that ever again. Thank you Afghanistan for providing so much data for my thesis. Last but not least, I would like to say good bye for my 4 years 1 month university life.
October 12th 2018
Vicky Farhan Hakim.
