Thesis Beginnings

I have until early-mid May to submit my thesis. It should be somewhere between 60-110 pages (excluding appendices, etc.). While it has been making me nervous since I started at Cornell, I am beginning to feel on top of the situation. It started with a two-semester seminar series last spring, where we split into small groups in order to read old theses from our program and critique them, looking at what makes a successful thesis.
So, last week I had an adjunct professor in my program giving me crap on my thesis-- why I hadn't gotten it all figured out already, wondering what my plan was, thinking I should have started writing it over the summer. Needless to say, it made me mad. I understand that his goal was to guilt me into action, and make me feel like I am already behind. But, I have been thinking about my thesis all summer and through the start of this semester, and still haven't come to any conclusions on what I want to study, or who I want to advise me for my thesis, so it is difficult to know what to do until these issues are figured out.
I finally experienced a break through this weekend though, and figured out what my thesis topic will be. I think my problem before was that I wasn't really excited about any of my potential topics. I found them interesting-- but not enough to feel willing to commit to a year's worth of research and revision on the topic; at least until now.
As I was thinking about all of the papers that I have written in graduate school so far, I realized that the one I found most interesting was the paper I wrote last fall on torture for my class on ethics and public policy. While I will need to narrow down the specifics of my paper, I have a starting point-- I will be researching how a US policy condoning torture influences the United Nations, and what it means for the International Court of Justice.
I met with my ethics professor from last fall this morning (I am taking a class with him this fall on Intergovernmental Systems) about my research. He knows just about everything on ethics and the US government, and gave me a bunch of ideas on where to go with my research. What was exciting to see was how excited he got about my research topic-- wanting me to come back and let him know how things were going in a couple of weeks, and we could work from there (I think this means I have found an advisor, and I haven't even asked him yet!) on it. He is also letting me write my research paper for him this semester on my thesis topic-- by focusing on how President Bush twisted the intergovernmental system to give himself enough power to allow torture to take place. I will focus on the failures of the check and balances of the legislative and judicial branches.
I am meeting tomorrow with my International Institutions professor to discuss the framing of my thesis topic for the UN, and also to get more ideas from her on where to go from here. The fortunate part of this is that I can also write a paper for her looking at this topic, and will have one chapter of my thesis written through the work I do on the final paper for her class.
We begin our second semester thesis seminar series in a couple of weeks, and I am beginning to realize that I have a lot more established than I thought I might, which is an exciting feeling.
I even spent part of the afternoon in the library, getting books so I can work on furthering my research. I'm excited-- I think this should be good.

Beginning to Look at Life After Graduation

My graduation isn't that terribly far away. While I still have to make it through the year, I can start applying for jobs now. In fact, it is highly recommended that I do start applying for jobs now, which in some ways seems completely crazy. I have started a list of organizations that I want to check on, to see if they have any open positions, what they are, where they are, etc. It's a bit difficult though, because I know that the organizations I am most interested in working for are not organizations that Cornell will direct me toward. The excellent part of Cornell is that there are so many great companies, non-profits, government agencies that are interested in it's graduates. But I know that I am not exactly the typical Cornell student. They are primarily based out of NYC, and I have a difficult time picturing Cody and I there. So, I am working to figure out how to find the right job for me, without having to leave all of the leg work to me, and seeing what Cornell's connections can do. It seems like a bit of a balancing act. We will see what happens. Cody and I aren't planning on going back to Minneapolis (not that we're avoiding it, but it is one of many options). It's exciting to have choices, and a little scary. But hopefully it should be good.

Classes have Begun

According to Cody, Starbucks has achieved its usual insanity again, which is a clear sign that the students are back. However, they are now coming in rushes, a good indication that they are on their way to class. I have now attended a number of my classes, which for the most part seem pretty good. One class hasn't happened yet, the prof decided to cancel our first day of class in honor of labor day. So, I went to three classes yesterday, all of which seemed good. My major question at this point is about the class I visited today. In theory, it seems like a good class-- International Institutions, looking at the UN, WTO, IMF, etc. The problem seems to be multipart. First, it meets from 11:30-2:00 on Tuesdays, which makes lunch difficult, particularly considering that we meet in a conference room off of one of the libraries, where no food is allowed. The prof knows her stuff, but I had a difficult time following her today, as she was basing her lecture off of hand-written notes, with no indication to the rest of us what was coming next. It was a little much for two hours on the first day. And, I have a three-hour long class on Monday nights that ends at 10 pm, so doing that twice in a row seems like it could be tough to do twice in a row. So, we'll see. I think I am going to spend the rest of the afternoon doing homework and checking out other options. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to skim a course catalog, as Cornell's course catalog is the size of the Minneapolis phone book. But overall, its been a good start.