Yesterday in class Shannon mentioned the amount of “letting go” required with research, the arduous amount of hard work and research, and the many circuitous paths our projects could take. I think another thing Shannon hasn’t mentioned is the post-partum depression that sets in as soon as a long-semester of research is over (this, of course, is only half true half in jest). Anyone else feel the same way?
I have mixed feelings about the class ending. It seems we all climbed a large mountain, and yesterday we reached the top together. But now it appears we either have to jump off a cliff or skydive. My preference is to continue, slowly walking down the apex – but as many of us exhaustingly said – “It’s time for a break”.
Part of my compulsiveness hopes I will spend more days plugging into URT, looking for connections, trying to discover something new. This is what was exciting about URT. The process of discovering information that has already been recorded in some way, now sitting on a map, looking new, or perhaps being rediscovered. The potential of the URT map is certainly there. I think its clear how much the class has worked in the process. It was an intensive learning and methodological exercise. While most of the research we all did was based in theoretical concepts, and framed by many of the readings from earlier in the semester, to be able to successfully “map” our theoretical concepts was difficult.
I am not sure I did, but I am hoping I will continue to add my data to URT and perhaps it will be a useful exercise for other researchers.