A Thesis on the Precipice of Completion

I’ll be done with this thesis in two days’ time, in less than 48 hours.

It’s always the last bits of work, the final moments of reading through something you have spent years working on, that feel the most difficult. I have spent so much of the last few days trying to work through this paper, trying to think about whether or not I’ve addressed every loose thread if I have done everything in my power to really finish this thing out. Can I walk away from writing this project feeling at least proud about the work that I have done? What else can I say to mark this moment?

I think so much of the battle in trying to contribute something novel or at least something previously under-discussed is the feeling that I am not the person to say anything. I mean, who am I to really speak authoritatively about anything, irrespective of whether or not I believe my political commitments align with the research I do (which I am confident in stating that there is alignment)? The way I’ve been able to only persist in continuing to work on this project is that I’m content knowing that this will be a marker in time specifically around how I am thinking about this particular political moment. I do not think that I will be in 100% agreeance with everything that I write in these 60 or so pages after even four or five months, but I do believe that it is the most honest account…