The Post-Thesis Zombie

Where's my medal?

Hello dear readers,

It has been a while, I know. Some of you undoubtedly thought my procrastinatory instincts had finally gotten the best of me and that I had abandoned this blog. True, The Wayward Orientalist has been on an extended hiatus while I was busy with the writing I was paid to do (yay journalism!) and the writing I was paying to do (yay grad school!).

But finally, after about a year of trials and tribulations (some of which were documented here), the thesis beast has finally been slain, thus ending my academic career once and (hopefully) for all. This victory, however, came at a price. I have had to sacrifice many things over the past year, including:

- My social life (I hadn't seen an acquaintance in so long they assumed I had left the country)
- My psychological well-being (Hello, meltdowns over bibliography formatting!)
- My physical health (I am perhaps the only grad student ever to need stitches from walking to an advisor meeting)

But the mental and physical scars were worth it, for I can now claim to be one of the world's leading experts on Lebanese civil society's opinion of political gender quotas. Expect to find me on the cover of Time Magazine any day now.

Since graduation, the past month has been spent trying to overcome my academic post-partum depression — yes, I'm sure that's a thing. The absence of perpetual stress and things to do have left me a little disoriented as I try to remember what being a normal person is like. Coping mechanisms include:

- Oversleeping
- Cleaning the disaster zone that is my room
- Interacting with fellow human beings (bonus points for discussions completely unrelated to academia)
- Reading for fun (!!!)

Moussa the cat has good taste in fiction.

- Going on excursions outside of Beirut
- Upgrading my interest in football from "moderate interest" to "mild enthusiasm" for the World Cup

News has been marred recently by a spate of small-scale attacks in Lebanon. I have little to say about this beyond sharing my weariness and sadness about the seemingly endless cycle Lebanon finds itself stuck in. I will say the Lebanese army's recent successes in tracking down militants has left me cautiously optimistic that we can avoid tragedies of the same scale as last year.

But any other observations will be left for future posts. It's nice to be back.