I was thinking de nouveau was right but I will always take the opinion of a native speaker over some website or my own tortured memory. Thanks for clarifying though it's still very helpful!
We last talked about 5 months before today! I understand what you mean although in (at least America) we'd probably say either research paper or thesis. Also wow it feels so good to be thought of <3 do you and your boyfriend get along well? Well a bunch of things along with the right timing made me want to take French. When I was given the option to take another language I had a choice between German, Spanish, and French. I quickly threw out Spanish because of a lack of interest and usefulness (as far north in the US as I am there is (or at least was) little to no need to learn Spanish). I was then left with German and French and I was far more interested French culture and values than German ones. Additionally I thought that French history was more interesting than German history and lastly that French sounded better. I took French for 5 years (from year 8 (and including year 8) until I graduated in year 12) and it was a little sad because the language finally started to make sense to me in my 5th year. Another useful aspect of French was the fact that Canada was so close and by extension Quebec so I thought there would be some practicality on my own continent. Today I am still interested in French mostly for more practical reasons that are related to communication, travel, and immigration. I like being able to talk to other people who speak other languages and in no way believe the whole world should be forced to learn English, additionally when it comes to the number of countries that French is useful in it's probably second only to Spanish, and lastly I would be interested in moving to Canada (you probably know but even if you want to move to an English-speaking part of Canada you're required to show some proficiency in French), Switzerland, Belgium, or France. I certainly do not intend on staying in the United States and also that brings me to the last point which was that I never liked or appreciated my own country (and as time goes on this only gets worse) and so I wanted to go to a country I felt progressed at a faster rate and treated its citizens with respect.