Thesis

I suppose this warrants a post. Even on a dead blog :)

Well, thesis has been a long journey, a very, very long journey...

And at the end of it, I get this:

Talk about encouraging...haha.

Whatever it is, a new life has begun. Brave new world! How will you be?

Before that, I am going to record here, before the memory fades, how difficult thesis was. Because looking back, I'm gonna think thesis was a breeze (maybe, compared to the life ahead, thesis is a breeze...hahahaa). Whatever it is, at this point of time, thesis is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

Two months before thesis. In school every single day from 8am (wake up at 7am) to 11pm. Closing in to submissions, I discovered bus 30 and 51 could take me home at 12:20am, so that was the time I left. Only tuition and church were distractions. 

All of us lived so long at studio that a studio pantry seemed necessary:

it evolved within a week to this:

and a short while later to this:

then even that failed, so we had this:

man, I love my studio friends. without then, I wouldn't have finished.

After this particular pizza incident, I came down with tonsillitis. Worked at home for a bit. Returned to school to work in the school computer labs, known as the dds. Tried working there for half a day then gave up when the sore throat went worse. Worked from home the rest of the day. Was in dds again the next morning. Sore throat improved a week down to submissions. Got going. 

Carol was a real angel:

Besides being my laser elf (she stayed up till 12am to book laser slots for me even when she was sick) she was also a food elf and elf encourager!! with kinder joy...haha. You will not believe how such a little thing could cheer a sad, sleep deprived thesis student. Even when I couldn't eat it because of my bad throat.

Honey lived under my table, on the warm space above the cpu.

The closer it got to panel submissions, the more sleep deprived we got. The more sleep deprived we got, the harder it got to work. It felt like pure torture. You want to sleep but you can't. Your brain is fuzzy and screaming for rest, you fall asleep randomly and once you jolt awake you continue working even when you don't want to. We began to stay in the dds and not go home. Sleeping on two roller chairs can be kinda comfortable, until you get back home and discover that clean sheets and a bed is the most wonderful thing in the world. When you actually go out of the computer lab, the sun looks so pretty. You wonder when will this whole thing end.

At points, you will want to give up. You will start chatting nonsense to the person next to you. You will start to sing randomly. You will suddenly slam the table and say: I GIVE UP. And suddenly everyone around you will look up with tired eyes and say: nono don't don't give up now just a few more days!! Just finish!!! Just finish will do, don't stop!! Just do.

And suddenly your wonderful friends wake up and talk nonsense just to cheer you up. I can't remember those conversations but I do remember it was punctuated with so much laughter. Friends are so necessary during this period. If I worked from home, I would have just given up and not submitted.

The last night, no one slept. I had one board to produce at 8am in the morning. One whole board! The rush. Clarence helped me to render one scene. Thanks Clarence. Just crazy photoshopping to complete the panels. The rush to west coast plaza in the rain to print. Tommy at scalebar was awesome (I don't work well with Tommy, but I admit, he did a great job at scalebar on submission morning. Thanks and no hard feelings.) Qian Lyn helped me submit panels when I was with Michelle at West Coast. Michelle sent me off with my panels even when she had so many panels to print. I am in awe at the unselfishness all my cohort showed despite the mad rush to personal submissions. There was no bad feeling in the mouth. We were in it together.

After submitting, Zakiah helped me pin up, even when she had already done hers and was probably dying to sleep. Walked around the panels a bit, then went back home and concussed for 15 hours. Then back to school for model making.

3 days to make a model that would normally take more than a week to do. I've tried. Thank God for the elves. 5 people helped me, Weiliang for a couple of hours friday night, Carol, Anh, Val and Eejia the whole afternoon and evening of saturday. Val and Eejia on Sunday afternoon, and Ee Jia stayed with me until 5am Monday morning until she was sure the model was nearly complete and I was safe.

my wonderful elves working hard on my model. sorry val, this one makes you look like you slack...hahaha

I got another egg of joy, haha this time from val!!! Thanks Val!!!

Ren Hui and her elves

Qian Lyn looks lonely here but her dear elf just left cos he had work...

Christy and her elves. Mind you this was taken at 2am, so the elves you see are the faithfullesst in the world.

this is the scene in the morning. kopped from ch:

must have like 20 elves working on one model. finished on time btw. awesome!

Oh btw, elves are the names of juniors (or seniors) who help their architecture seniors (usually) with their submissions. I assure you it is perfectly normal and tutors encourage the calling of friends and family to help a student with their thesis work. Without elves, it is impossible to finish. Other courses may think this is cheating, but they do not understand our workload. (Admission of QL's non-archi boyfriend (and elf): Man, I never knew you guys had to do all these...wah without help cannot finish one!) (okay, this is my own words, but he admitted it, according to QL)

ch stole my elf. 

ch's chio model and chui face (hahahahha i rather like the alliteration)

ee jia didn't want to have her photo taken. But seriously, I am terribly touched that she stayed till 5am for me. Best friend!! and that's my fairly chio model :)

damn complicated.

michell and owen. I dare say, i have never seen an elf as faithful as owen. archi juniors, do get a gf or bf from archi before you face thesis. they are the most faithful elves in the world. owen took off from work and overnighted with michelle for nearly 3 nights and rendered half her scenes. he was there consistently and worked even when michelle was sleeping. man. respect.

done! oh donee!!!!

Okay, actually I have a thesis report due tmr. byebye.

I AM SO GLAD THESIS IS OVER. I LOVE MY BED.

Hullo, I realize I forgot to mention God.

Well, I dare say my spiritual life went into slump during thesis. Especially during the end period. I did pray, but more or less sporadically. He was there, yet not there. I wonder what my relationship with God is like. I do think of Him constantly, but I tend not to mention Him all the time. 

He's just kinda there...haha.

Is this the wrong way to do things?

Hello God.

I know You are here, and You have had Your hand in everything.

:) Thank You God, thanks for all the things You've helped me with. Thank You for helping me complete thesis. Thank You for the friends You've blessed me with, thank You for the support and thank You for oh all the blessings I've received and the experiences I've been through. Thank You for all the hard work I've had to do and all the difficulties and thank You that I'm all through and I'm done and I'm alive.

Thank You for the sun in the sky, and that it didn't rain that day I was rushing back and praying it wouldn't rain until I stepped into the house. Thank You that I was sick, so I did rest and not hurt myself more. Thank You for Your constant reminders that I must be humble and thank You that I couldn't do it on my own. Thank You that I learned from thesis that I am not a one man show and that I have wonderful friends around me who love me and would do so many things for me and that I will do it for them too and I shall ask for nothing back.

Thank You that I'm alive and right now I have this future ahead of me and it's full of Your promises. Thank You Lord, thank You thank You!!

Thank You that You are everything and I am nothing and nothing I can do or not do will ever throw me out of Your sight. Thank You that You are wonderful and gracious and You love me even when I don't deserve to be loved. Thank You that I learn through thesis that there is so much I do not deserve but it is given anyway.

Thank You Lord!!!