Data Collecting, Round ?

When I was a kid, I hated puzzles. I never had the patience to complete them. So, it seems counterintuitive that I chose to go to grad school. See, academics grapple with puzzles everyday, trying to come one step closer to solving them. At precisely 4:40 pm yesterday, I hated my qualifying paper. I remember this because I was sitting in Michele's office, venting, discouraged with the status of my paper and upset because it still wasn't done. I had just returned from a meeting with DM, who seemed to be excited and optimistic about this paper. Why didn't I share in his enthusiasm? Because I have a puzzle, and I don't know how to solve it. Because I don't know how to solve it, my paper is still incomplete.

So, I went home, did some free writing (a habit I learned in a high school writing class) and reflected on DM's suggestions for the paper. Later that night, I met Michele at the pub and she helped me figure out what I needed to do next to improve the paper. She reminded me (as DM did, too) that I was learning a lot through this process. So, one too many glasses of wine later, I had more clarity and fresh ideas to move the paper forward. At around 10:30 pm last night, I decided that I really like this paper and I'm excited that I may be coming one step closer to figuring out my puzzle. So, that's why I'm sitting here at my computer, nearly one year after starting this project, collecting more data.