A look in the past: Studying...

Are you sitting comfortable and having something to drink? Good. So my thesis. I mentioned my thesis several times in my posts, but I never really mentioned what it is about basically…I didn’t want to bore you guys with the subject. But okay, some of you wanted to know and it slowly becomes a danger for future postings...so you all deserve to know what's holding me in its grip for the weeks to come...First, let me tell you a little bit about my school career. At the moment I study sociology for my Master’s degree at the Erasmus University. Before this I studied Human Resource management (HRM) for 4 years and I got my Bachelor’s degree. Here I also had to write my first thesis and this thesis was connected to a international project ( and a two week trip to Lithuania ^_^!). But okay, studying went fairly easy and I graduated at the age of 20. After graduation, I decided to go for my Master’s degree in Sociology. This study is like an extension of my previous study, so a lot of information is known to a certain level and therefore seeing resemblances in theories, understanding how society works was not that difficult. But now I'm at the end again and the final challenge is my thesis...

It seriously looks like I'm giving the finger to my laptop...that I didn't mean to do...

I can tell a lot more how the years of studying went, but I will spare you all the details. The thing that makes it difficult now is the continuing editing process. My first thesis wasn't that difficult to write, maybe it made it easier for me because I loved the international aspect of my thesis and I wrote it in English. For some reason writing in English comes more fluently for me than writing in Dutch...and I'm Dutch -_-. Either way, the rules for handing in the final research were not complicated at all. I started with the subjects’ individualization and globalization last year and after reading lots and lots of articles and theories, I came across one article from Julian Le Grand, that caught my eye immediately. Le Grand did a research about the motivation, agency and public policy of civilians, which he categorizes as Knights & Knaves.

In short, knights are altruistic of nature and knaves are self centered. A civilian has each role, but one can be more present then the other. This depends for example on generation differences. I want to combine these motivations with an up to date subject and I chose aging of the population. The main thoughts of my thesis is: how motivations could have changed over time and how civilians will support labor market participation of elderly and also why they wouldn't support this.
To do this, I have to analyze data and keep reading and keep analyzing information. After reading a bunch of things…again…I’m struggling with the definition and use of certain words. And it is important to get all of this straightened out now, before I really start with the data (Luckily I already have the data, thanks to my professors!).
But yeah, finding the right definitions, otherwise it will be a real pain in the ass, to edit it afterward. Don't get me wrong, I like Sociology and I find it really interesting to see how an individual can act like a society, but all these years of studying just really made me tired and I’m losing my motivation to study like I used to ^_^’…

Throughout the years I often got the question ‘Why didn’t you study Arts or did something with drawing for that matter?’. Well, this is a story for another post…I think this one is already quite long hehe (and I just stuck to the core elements haha!). But if you want to know more or have questions about something more specific about my thesis, just let me know.
Thanks for reading this ehm...more 'serious' post hehe! Hope you liked the doodles too ^_^! I didn't do something fancy with them this time.

Ciao!