The Thesis Traumarathon

Over the past couple of months, writing my thesis has taken priority over everything else in my life. Hence, blogging was sidelined, along with a bunch of other things I enjoy doing in my life. In order to accomplish the thesis traumarathon (trauma + marathon), I made a lot of changes place in my life. A lot of things were reduced - alcohol consumption, experimenting with new restaurants and trips to the gym. At the same time, a lot of new things were added - excessive stress binging on cinnamon sweet rolls from Bite cafe, skipping gym and football, and watching House M.D. (I don't know why I'm doing this).

Fortunately, all of this has finally ended. So in this post, I'm going to write a bit about my thesis and my plans for the summer ahead. I'm going to write about the 3 things I'm really looking forward to this summer.

Watch Roland Garros

Watching all 4 tennis grand slams has been one of the oldest items in my bucket list. I started playing tennis when I was 9 years old and in a short period of time, it became the love of my life. I would wake up every morning, winter or summer, at 5 am to get ready for tennis classes before school. Later on, when I started playing in a tennis academy in the evening, I would hate the rains and the monsoons. We played on clay courts and they wouldn't dry up in time for classes in the evening. 

Finally, I'll have the opportunity this summer to go to Paris and watch Roland Garros live. I'll be at Center court on 1 day and Court 1 on another day during the second and third rounds in singles. In addition, I'll also have access to all other side courts. I really hope I get to see Djokovic, my favorite tennis player, play on one of the days. If he manages to win the tournament this time, it will be like an icing on the cake. He has come too close to winning it in the past few occasions and he needs this to complete his career slam. 

I'm also excited about traveling to Paris. It'll be my fourth solo trip and I'm slowly beginning to get good at them. I've made my own personal set of tips from my previous experiences that I tend to follow (maybe I'll write another blog about it someday). I've heard a lot about Paris. My french teacher, Swati Dasgupta, would also tell us stories of the exchange trips she took to Paris (Ma'am, if you're reading this, I still remember how hard you tried to improve my pronunciation). I'm sure it'll be a memorable experience. It'll also be the perfect reward for completing my Master's education in Hungary as I give my last exam on the day before I fly to Paris. For reasons too many to fit in a blog, it has been quite an exciting journey that feels like it just started yesterday. I've been truly blessed to have the support and love of everyone, old and new, through this. I promise that all of you will remain in my memories and the stories I tell my grand-kids when I'm bald and old. 

My parents' first Eurotrip

My parents will come to visit me this summer for my graduation ceremony and I'm really excited to have them here. This will be the first time they will ever take a trip outside the country and I'm looking forward to having a good time with them when they visit me. We'll take a trip to Vienna and possibly one more city for a few days. I'll also try and make them meet my friends in the city. 

I really hope they like Budapest. Over time, I've fallen in love with the city and I really hope they're able to see that when they're here. Although, I'm quite worried about what they'll eat when we go out. They're vegetarians and if there's one thing that this city lacks, it's decent vegetarian options. Over the past month, I've started taking mental notes of places that have good vegetarian options so that I have enough places to take them out to when they're here. 

Read 

Reading is one of those good habits that I've lost over time. I've tried to redevelop it a few times over the past few years but without success. I'm going to give it another shot this time. I really need to develop the habit of reading. I don't wish to do this because it's a good habit to have or because I am expecting any intellectual returns from this activity. The reason I wish to do this is because I've realized that my attention span has been decreasing over the last few years. This is pretty much true for a lot of us. Our attention spans have been decreasing as distractions have increased rapidly. There was a time when I used to love watching movies and I would get so engrossed in it that I would nearly shout at my friends for talking in between (I was the worst person to watch a movie with). Now I can barely go through a 40-minute episode without checking my phone. 

I value my ability to focus on one thing and give important things my undivided attention. It is one of those things that have given me an edge over others in terms of productivity. I really wish to sustain it in the long run. So I must make some effort to increase my attention span or at least ensure it doesn't drop lower. I'm going to start with a fiction book and a book on finance. I really hope I'm able to finish these 2 books this summer and maybe another fiction. 

---

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. If you have any suggestions on what I should read or things I should do in Paris, feel free to mention them in the comments section below.