beforeiread-studies2

[beforeiread-studies2]

22.06.2025 || Wish me luck, I'm going to my thesis advisor tomorrow to show her the first five pages. Tomorrow I also start my job again so I'll have less time to work on the dissertation. Hopefully my willpower will be enough to write in the afternoon :/

Other than that, I'm at 8/100 minimum pages written. Which I now realize it means I can measure my progress in percentages. 8% done!

[beforeiread-studies2]

I see. I think that balancing many interests/goals is a problem for many people (me included, you can see the post pinned to my blog). I don't know what country you are studying in, so maybe the school system is different there, but in my experience university isn't that busy, especially as an undergraduate. For reference, I have studied in Italy, the UK and South Korea so far and I've never studied law. The busiest I've ever been was in high school in Italy, not even in Italian university. You just go to classes during the semester and have exams during exam season.

The main problem is not time but: will you have the mental energy to do all these extracurricular stuff you want to?

What I'm trying to say is that it sounds to me like you are an overachiever, but remember that these interests you talk about are self-imposed goals. So it's fine if you relax them a little during the first few months of uni, while you are trying to get your bearings. Something I learned from knitting: a hobby is a hobby. No one is going to yell at me if I take too long to finish a sweater except for myself, and why would I yell at myself? If it stresses you out, you can put it aside for a while.

If worst comes to worst and you are only able to read 1 page a day, you'll still have read a whole book by the end of the semester. Slow progress is still progress.

I realize that maybe you wanted some reassurance that you'll be able to do everything at once. Maybe you will, but if you can't nobody will be able to be mean about it except for you. Just keep that in mind.

And about reading the class material in advance. I often wished I had done it (there was this one class when we had to read a new novel every week), but I was completely fine regardless, so don't stress too much about that either. Just don't wait until last minute to start writing your essays/prepare for the exams, that's what really sucks.

PS. If you are looking for a way to set goals and actually finish things, look up SMART goals. I find that making a list of easily achievable goals at the beginning of every month helps me a lot (again, the pinned post on my blog) + if you want to publish in academia you should talk to your professors once you start uni. I'm not sure if it's possible to publish as a freshman? but they'll know better than me for sure.

Guys, if someone's a really avid reader here (not of novels and stuff, of academic literature) can u plssss help me out? I have SO many interests and ideas, but I never end up finishing anything. Plus I'm going to start uni in August and i srsly don't know how i should manage my interests and academics, how much I should read before going to college, that sort of stuff

Pls help me out if ur free

[beforeiread-studies2]

20.06.2025 || I worked on my dissertation for around 3 hours. I'm now at 6.5 pages. I wrote about 3 pages because I decided to move around 2 already written pages to the second chapter. Slowly slowly I'll get somewhere.

[beforeiread-studies2]

stop earning advanced degrees i need you to finish your fanfiction

[beforeiread-studies2]

Hi. I'm not sure I understand your question, but if you are worried about not knowing enough about your major before starting college, I wouldn't stress about it. You are there to learn about it, which means you don't know everything about it yet. Every other person in the class is also there to learn about it. Maybe check what books you'll need for your first semester courses and read those for a head start.

Of course you can read as many books as you'd like this summer, but it's not required. It's all extra effort you decide to put in because you want to and enjoy doing it.

Or maybe you are worried about essay writing and procrastination? Or about how academia works? Let me know if I misunderstood your question. I'm currently writing my MA dissertation in English Literature. From your blog it looks like you are interested in History?

Guys, if someone's a really avid reader here (not of novels and stuff, of academic literature) can u plssss help me out? I have SO many interests and ideas, but I never end up finishing anything. Plus I'm going to start uni in August and i srsly don't know how i should manage my interests and academics, how much I should read before going to college, that sort of stuff

Pls help me out if ur free

[beforeiread-studies2]

19.06.2025 || I bought my first scented candle today and I'm not impressed. It smelled better before I burned it. If anyone can tell me what I did wrong I'd be thankful.

About my dissertation. I didn't write more but I thought about it + read bits from a new secondary source for around 1 hour of total effort, so that's still progress.

And now I'm sleepy, so I'll try to sleep (it's afternoon).

[beforeiread-studies2]

18.06.2025 || Wrote 1.5 pages today (in 2 hours!) so we are now up to 5 pages total. Will need to edit the shit out of them but that's a problem for First Chapter Is Done me.

I've decided that my goal for now is to write 1-2 pages every 2-hour study session and that's giving me so much peace of mind btw. If I keep up with it, I should be done in less than 100 days or around 3 months. That's a nice thought. So I'll probably end up graduating in December instead of October but who cares. It's tomato tomato.

[beforeiread-studies2]

🥳🥳 I completed my thesis 🥹🤠 the representation of psychotic mental illness in museums. Tomorrow I move, on Monday is the queer job conference, 26th I fly to London to present, 27th I submit my work, the 28th I presumably start making fan art everyday again lmao

[beforeiread-studies2]

16.06.2025 || Wrote the first 3.5 pages of my dissertation today! I was hoping to crank out 5 so I can go meet my supervisor tomorrow but you know what? I'm tired. I want to sleep. I'll meet them next week or something. The important thing is that I keep writing in the meantime.

[beforeiread-studies2]

i bring a sort of "it's actually not that deep" vibe to a phd meeting that my advisor doesn't really like

[beforeiread-studies2]

"If the past is so complicated, what can we say about the future, a totally unknown territory whose shape and details change from one prediction to the next?"

The Weather in the Imagination, by Lucian Boia (2005)

[beforeiread-studies2]

14.06.2025 || TIL while reading for my dissertation that the date of grape harvest in Europe had been recorded for centuries, especially in France. These accounts was therefore used to study how climate might have changed from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The more you know.

Source: The Weather in the Imagination, by Lucian Boia, Chapter 3.

[beforeiread-studies2]

Summer means more plants, fresh fruit snacks and cherry chai.

[beforeiread-studies2]

As a consequence of my studying Korean, I now get unsettled when I see the romanization of people's names, especially in kdramas and webtoons.

What do you mean Yoo Ji-hyuk? Paik Sa-eon? Ok Taec-yeon? What do you mean?? Just give me the Hangul 제발.

[beforeiread-studies2]

08.06.2025 || My dissertation supervisor approved my dissertation outline (૭ ｡•̀ ᵕ •́｡ )૭ Now I need to write the first 5 pages and go to her office hours. The next one is tomorrow, will I make it on time? TT

Things to do today:

Finish reading monography

Finish reading all material I have collected (0/9)

Copy and paste notes in a document

Put my notes in order

Write the 5 pages

[beforeiread-studies2]

06.06.2025 || I'll do my best today and that's enough.

Things to do today:

Anki Korean

Lunch.

Book doc appointment

Answer messages

Check email

Fill out documents for internship

Read materials for dissertation

Yoga

Push-ups

Dinner.

Der Die Das after dinner

BONUS TASKS: knitting; watch WWWSK Ph

[beforeiread-studies2]

05.06.2025 - Dissertation diaries || Well, my job finished yesterday so I have no excuses to not study for my dissertation anymore. But I don't want to TT

Things to do today:

Anki Korean

Webtoon Korean

Yoga

Watch W3SK Ph ep

Finish reading chapter for dissertation

Finish writing dissertation outline

Send it to my professor

Lunch. Cook spaghetti

Watch 1 episode of My Sweet Mobster

Go to doctor

Do push-ups