A Masters degree? me?

Well, yes. I have decided that rather than simply graduate this year with a post-graduate diploma I am going to continue on and complete a thesis with the hope of graduating next year with a Master of Philosphy in Development Studies.

And that is also one the reasons it has taken me a month to write anything on this page. January was a bit of a roller-coaster of a month as I started to figure out how this might work. But now I think I finally have it "sussed"- and am now a little impatient to get underway.

The first step is to complete my fourth and final "paper" (the Masters degree consists of 4 papers and a thesis, the diploma is just the 4 papers). I have chosen to to a paper titled "Personal and Community Health" in an attempt to integrate my nursing background with the development studies focus.. That should be finished by mid-year and in July I will be enrolling full time at university for the final (and biggest!) step- the thesis. Luckily that gives me several months to decide on a topic...!

However complicating these plans is my work situation. My contract at the Diabetes Lifestyle Centre was just for a year, which is up at the end of this month. Just last week I was given a "stay of execution"- and will have full time work until the end of March, with the possibilty of full-time work beyond that.

But that still leaves me with a few months gap before I will be eligible for a student allowance... and if we want to eat I'll need to be earning. So I'm looking for work again- and contemplating hitting the wards for a while.

So check back here again as this journey begins to unfold. Will there be more work? What exciting topic will the thesis research be about? Can both Cruzes be full time students and survive?