When I was young, I often heard the song "Ligaya" by Eraserhead on random Philippine radio stations. Sometimes, I asked my mom about the term "thesis." If you know the song, then you will have an idea about what I am talking about. But then told me she didn't know it because she hadn't completed college.
Fortunately, we completed our thesis despite financial, time, mental, and social struggles. I want to call it a "thesis," even though our research is formally called a "feasibility study." Spiderman once said, "With great power comes great responsibility." And with the power, I am so happy as I became responsible and became a ladder to lift my co-members.
It's been two months since we passed this research, and I still remember my struggles. For this blog, I want to discuss how we finished it until the end.
July 2024 - Title Defense
Before conducting this study, we took over 100 titles until he was satisfied with five. He is meticulous and has threatened that I could lose the "Latin Honors" spot if I remain uncompetitive. The five titles he approved were presented to the Dean of our department. However, we only managed to approve two titles. After she checked it, we contemplated whether we would choose Tomato Hydroponic or Deep Cleaning Services. Yet, all of us selected the Tomato Hydroponics.
When choosing between the two, I weighed different factors. One of the reasons why I didn't select Deep Cleaning Services is it has low potential anticipated demand. If we were to establish the business, it would be hard to penetrate the market since not everyone in our city is rich. If we conduct this study, we should go to places where they can afford our rate. However, it will not be hard to guess the demand for tomato hydroponics since tomatoes are considered necessary.
September 2024 - Data Collection
I don't want to lengthen this blog, but this part of our research is the most challenging. With this study phase, I tasked my other groupmates to find data on vendors selling tomatoes in SCM, Nueva Ecija. We tried to collect data from the public market office, but we didn't find any. We also tried San Jose's office, and they only said that they don't have a history of data for the past five years. Luckily, one of my groupmates recommended going to BPLO, and they successfully obtained the data. My professor almost taught me to switch from B2B to B2C, but I pushed through B2B. I'm glad that I made a great decision.
October 2024 - Proposal Defense
This is our first defense, and I don't want the way the chairman judges our paper. He was pushing us to have a prototype, although it's impossible. Do you think we can bring a greenhouse in front of them? We stayed at my groupmate's house just to review the basics, but they decided to focus on that damn prototype. I thought we would fail our proposal defense, but it's a relief that we all passed. Now, we're going to transition for another semester, which is way harder.
November to December 2024 - First Phase of the Bloodiest Part
I want to say that it is the bloodiest part since you will now do more comprehensive research. I can't believe our first draft is not appealing compared to our submitted hardbound. Then, I realized that it is the reality of life. We might see things pretty well in our first draft, but you will see more mistakes once you analyze it. Subsequently, we will change our mistakes and continuously try to be better.
December 2024 - Doing Research Alone
I researched our business deeply since I wanted less workload once we met. I read various papers on how it operates and added and removed RRL & RRS. If you want to stand out among the rest, you should know how it operates. Additionally, I searched how personnel are compensated and how tomatoes grow based on their variety. It is the main reason why we didn't fail our thesis defense.
January - February 2025 - Second Phase of the Bloodiest Part
This is the phase where we spend a lot of money. I computed the total amount, and we contributed P12,150. Please take note that it is only for January to February. Unfortunately, the printing money for the first semester and our pocket money for the fare and food are not yet included.
March 2025 - Feasibility Study (Thesis) Defended
After continuous practice, we finally defended our feasibility study. Only 10/12 of us passed, and my other two members are subject to redefense. I even saw a group on other campuses where only one of them had passed. However, in their redefense, those two who have failed successfully passed it. They said most of the questions I practiced with them were asked. It's a relief that my overall effort didn't go to trash.
April 2025 - Hardbound and Addressing Concerns
After the defense, one of my friends told me about my groupmate's rant. I understand her point of view, but I don't get why she said it with others. I can't believe that I will fall within accusations.
Late Accusations
One of my friends heard from somewhere that I don't have any penalties when I am late. If I know I am late and reschedule it, I will always announce two to three hours before. It's not my fault if she was there two hours before the announcement. I got her rant, but I was fumed about the penalties for emergencies if they are late. Ironically, they go home early during our practice, but I didn't give them penalties.
What are penalties?
Since I want to avoid higher costs, I imposed a penalty rule. That's the main reason I always get their payment on time, as I always tell them that I charge ₱100.00 a day after the deadline. I also charged penalties for late, but absences from sickness are only ₱20.00. The fine for absences is ₱100.00 per meeting. You are only considered late if you are one hour late upon the agreed time.
If you are curious about where I use the money, I use it for upcoming contributions. For example, we need to pay our accountant for financial statements. If the contribution is ₱3,500.00 and the overall penalty they get is ₱500.00. Thus, the overall contribution for each member is ₱3,000.00. We will divide the overall money to share with the total number of members. For example, members have ₱250.00 contribution, and your penalty is ₱300.00. Your total amount to pay is ₱550.00.
Yes, it's a bit painful in your pocket if you are not attending meetings or contributing to the group. It's a bold move for me since I rewarded those who have no absences or are late. I always tell them to attend if I feel their penalty is enormous. At least I don't feel any bitterness about why they passed this study. I heard on some of the groups that they removed members who were not participating. They are lucky since that's my only approach. That's why I disliked some of her arguments.
Going to the back
I also heard that they were disappointed in this one during our defense. Personally, I don't need to reanswer it since it's my normal instinct. Imagine spending time with them to review the possible questions and practicing their parts. Then, they are going to give them hilarious answers. I am so embarrassed with their answers. If I knew it would happen, hope that I would just keep the reviewers for myself and let them fail it.
The later thing
I heard that they are also dissatisfied since I often say "later" whenever they ask questions during the defense. That's the most false accusation that I heard. Probably, it's because we are on the defense and not only mock defense. They know that two groups presented before us asked questions one by one without other members. Is it already too much to ask?
Well, I think my friend sent my response and also put my rants. I don't regret answering their questions and stand firmly with my response. The most important is that I don't say anything mean about their appearances. It is such an immature act and also not my branding.
Also, I am grateful since I was able to do my part where all of us have passed. It's such a rare phenomenon that I broke the stereotype since most of my groupmates are not performing well academically. When we collaborated together, I realized that they were not stupid. They are just focusing on their hobbies and being playful.