May I introduce you to the T-Rex

Even though I am still at home and don’t leave for school until next week, I am already getting prepared for next semester. Because this semester, I will write my thesis.

If you have read any of the admissions materials on Bates, then you have heard that every senior completes a thesis. The point of this project is centered around the writing experience at Bates, and the thesis along with the First Year Seminar, is bookend our college education. Seniors take this in either one of four ways: 1) Some students don’t care for the writing process and therefore are just in it to finish it. 2) Other students see this project as an opportunity to give a cumulation of everything they’ve learned in college, so they have something to mail home to grandma and say “See how smart I am?” 3) Then there is another set of students who see the senior thesis as a time to engage in a specific pet project for a semester with their favorite professor and, more or less, write the giant essay that they’ve always wanted to write about on the subject they’ve learned to love most in college. 4) Still, in the final category, there are students who see the thesis as a platform from which they can compose a serious document that can be attached to their graduate school application. In the past, as professors have explained to me, an elegant thesis and a good recommendation from one’s advisor can get students into the most competitive of graduate programs, no  matter their GPA.  

Students usually fluctuate between these categories. If I had to label myself, I think I would fall under the third. The T-Rex (the thesis, as some students call it) for me is more about having fun and engaging in one last brutal and bloody wrestle with a topic I have learned to love in my college career, Philosophy of Religion. Though I haven’t picked a specific topic yet I know I want to write about Science and Religion, mainly the specific effects of Quantum Theory, Relativity, Big Bang, and Evolution on modern theology. Or how scientific development have influenced theological ethics and our understanding of our relationship to the natural world. This comprises a huge genre of literature, and I don’t know exactly what I am going to focus on or what my view point will be. But I know my advisor, and so as soon as I get back to Maine we will hit the ground running.

I’m excited for the thesis writing process to begin, though I know how challenging it will be and how hard my professor will critique my essays. But also, if anything, I think this semester allow me to have a little more fun than last semester. I will be taking three classes (all of which should be great) and writing my thesis. 

I will continue updating with photos as soon as I leave Kentucky and get back to Vacationland…. I mean school.

-Graham