I Call It My Thesis Weight...

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...And not in an endearing sort of way.

It's more of an I-can't-believe-I've-gained-back-so-much-of-the-weight-I-lost-last-year-and-I-hate-it-so-much kind of way.

I find thesis weight to be much less noble than baby weight. I mean, when all of this is over, I'll have about a 100-page paper* to show for it. Something that will hopefully be published (at least once...), but that's all.

I won't have a 5+ lb. bundle of life in my hands (the way my family grows them, it's more like a 9+ lb. bundle) that I spent 40 weeks creating in my body, that I am then expected to nurture and teach for at least the next 21 years of your life (but, which continues on into the 30s and 40s easily I'm sure - albeit without the same intensity).

Perhaps I sound a bit anti-feminist. And truth be told, I kind of am. But that's another discussion for another day.

*this beast of a paper is currently 70+ pages. but let me quickly add that I've only created 16 of those pages (so far. it'll definitely be longer, but not 50 pages...). the rest are appendices that I only needed to insert. but you never hear that part of the story when someone tells you their thesis length. at least I don't. so it sounds as though they've created all those pages, when really... they haven't.