Thesis update

I am coming out of my hole for a minute to update everyone on my thesis progress.  I went into hibernation mode two weeks ago after a meeting with my professor...however not much hibernation has been done, more like worker bee hermit!  Anyway, I am kicking things into sixth gear and haven't had ANY time for just about anything else.

But here is what I have accomplished so far:

• I finished data collection a.k.a. I finished all my interviews and no longer have to travel to another University to meet with athletes.

• I then transcribed those interviews word for word verbatim, I finished with 69,571 words.  Which equated to about 227 pages of data.  Oh man.

• This past week I have been "coding" the data, which basically means I go through each transcription and organize what the athletes told me into different categories.  Examples would be "what it means to be a female in the weight room,"  "Society's ideal femininity,"  "Impact of others in the weight room." etc. I have officially finished this part today!!!  

(How I felt today - a little brain dead)

So now the next step is writing that information into a narrative explaining my results and discussion on the issues (chapter 4), then conclusions (chapter 5) with recommendations for further research and advice for professionals, etc.

If I want to graduate in May (officially) I have to have a finished product turned into the grad school by April 10th at the latest.  I'm hoping to go to my defense (presentation of findings) March 31st or somewhere in there.  Which means I need to basically have a finished product by March 16th!  Oh dang.  Keeping my nose to the grindstone, this gal is determined!

So you may see another guest post or two from my incredibly handsome husband in the meantime :-)