Final Year Fiasco : How My Thesis Became A Trainwreck

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans. - Peter Drucker

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It’s one thing to be committed to doing something and it’s another to have someone damped your spirit. This a real life story of my frustrations in final year.

As is done everywhere, final year students in the university are supposed to conduct some research based on what they’re studying to present as their final year projects. Before we ended our third year second semester, we were told we could send in letters if we wanted a particular lecturer to be our project supervisor. Some of my mates did and looking back, I think I should have done same rather than believing that the universe will work in my favor. Project supervisor list came out and well, I thought my supervisor was cool but little did I know.

Most students in my department had their project topics sent to them by their supervisors even before our final year began. My group members and I on the other hand didn’t even know where our supervisor was.😂 I saw the real pepper when school resumed. Having to balance final year with other extra curricular activities wasn’t enough, I had to be chasing my supervisor here and there just to get him to sit down with me on behalf of my group. It took almost a month to get him to discuss our project topics.

Funny thing is, this man told us he wasn’t going to give us project topic’s because even if he did, we wouldn’t be able to carry it out since he was more inclined to genetics and it was really costly to run such projects. Fast forward, I came up with about 3 topics and guess what? My supervisor asked me to get a new one cos these topics were very broad. At some point I wanted to ask him what his problem was.

After about two weeks of ups and downs, my project topic was finally accepted. I knew what I was going to work on since I had done a lot of research on it as compared to those who were handed their topics. Most of them didn’t even know what they were doing. With the nature of the work, I knew I had to get my lab work done before the end of July due to the nature of the raw materials I was using.

Guys, you should have seen me presenting my project proposal.😅 Even the lecturers knew I was prepared for what I was going to work on. I received good feedback and some additions from the panel. After the whole show, I knew that with the energy i came in for my proposal presentation the panel will expect much more for my project defense.

Long story short, my project defense was a disaster. Why do I say it was a disaster? Before I started my lab work, my supervisor asked my to do just one part of the work but I knew deep down that it wouldn’t be enough for a BSC final year project. I told him but he said I should just do what he said. What else could I do since he was the one to grade me. I did what I was asked and everything was ready until about two days to my project defense. This man asked me to run the same tests he told me to put aside.

A lot of things were running through my mind at that moment. How to get reagents, how to get samples, will the lab be open, how about my ppt and my whole work? I was so restless and confused at this point. I lost all interest in school because during that time, I had about 2-3 hours of sleep in days cos I had to be at the lab during the day and be up at night making changes to my work.

At the end of the day, I wasn’t even happy with how things were going and my spirit was very down. I was no more working on the project because I wanted to, I was doing it because I wanted to get it over and done with. Even after my project defense where I was kept on the hot seat, I still had more work to do.

During that time, I was really frustrated and anytime I think about it I get mad because why would my supervisor do this to me. Well, I finally graduated and I’m free now. In my next life, I’ll make sure to not be his project student.😂

I hope you enjoyed reading this, thank you for your time.