UGH! but yay, I think

Sooooo.....i'm very frustrated with myself over this whole process. I did not get it done and was not able to submit to NCA. I thought I could do it until monday when I realized it was not going to be in any way close to submission quality work. It was difficult to let my instructor know, and it was difficult to acknowledge to myself that I did not meet my goal for the class for the semester.

But seeing as how this is the very first complete research project i've ever done, i think I did pretty well. I mean, i've done other research projects, but this was the first one that i've ever worked on from conceiving the idea to researching literature to making a survey to submission to IRB. Then to actually have interviews and -ugh- transcription to putting it all together. For someone who just a couple years ago was totally not into research at all, this was a surprisingly invigorating class project.

That being said, i'm surprised that overall, this class has not deterred me at all in continuing my studies and completing this degree. So, this is a good thing. I'm actually excited to continue to do more research and more projects. This project has really opened my eyes to how much work goes into the thinking process of the project, in addition to the process of actually reading/gathering data/writing it up. I've come to realize there are so many more avenue of possibility open right now.

I am a bit confused though. I had thought that we were not going to be presenting our projects to the class or community, however, we just received an email stating that we were going to be doing just that. So even though i'm glad to be done, and i feel fairly confident in my project, i'm still a bit daunted by presenting it. To other researchers. I guess i feel a bit like i'm not quite on par with the other researchers I know. However, I know that the more I do, the more I push myself and push my comfort zone, the more I will grow. This is not unlike when I first began working as a PA. I felt kinda lost, and a lot confused but I knew where to go to ask for help. And such as it is with this program. So since I have to present my work, i'm glad it is with my cohort of researchers. At least we have all felt the struggle this semester and know first hand what has gone into it.

And thats pretty cool.