The middle of October to the middle of November has always been the busiest time of the fall semester for me. This year, I had hoped to manage my time a little better so I could spend more of it getting a good start on my senior research project. But as of now, I really haven’t found much time at all to work on it, and feel a bit as if I’m scrambling to get something not entirely insignificant done by the middle of December.
I’ve tried not to be too hard on myself for this. For one, I’ve had to balance lots of other commitments. Since the Stevens Dramatic Society’s Fall play and the Student Government Associations Big Budget Meeting are in early November, and I played important roles in both, it was reasonable for those to take precedence. Additionally, I wanted to do well in my midterms, so I spent more time studying for those, which paid off with good grades, so that is something to be proud of!
And moreover, research is very hard. The subject area of my senior project is still fairly new to me, and it’s been difficult to thoroughly learn the necessary background information with those other commitments I just mentioned. There’s still a lot of work I need to do to fully understand what’s been done in this research field, let alone make new contributions to it. Research is something I’m incredibly passionate about, but this task has been extremely daunting to me.
I do have the rest of senior year to work on this project, but this won’t actually be too much more time. Earlier in the past week, I got very stressed about when to find the time to make progress on my project. I kept asking myself: “will I ever have enough time to commit to this, or will it all end in a disappointing final result?”
What has helped me get over this stress is a balance of making time to do the work, and talking about these stressful feelings a bit more with close friends and loved ones. When I sit down and actually put some time towards the research and solely the research, I feel really fulfilled. It’s a hard project, but also an enjoyable one, and as long as I am putting in the effort, I can show at the end of the year that I, at the very least, gave it the old college try. Furthermore, my research advisor has been incredibly helpful in so many ways, and so I feel this support from her in getting through the difficult work.
And getting to vent a bit about the stress has probably been annoying to those I’ve vented to, but it does help a lot. I’ve tried to relax a bit more, in general, this week, and spending time with the people who care about me has made me feel refreshed and excited for future work on the research and on other life tasks in general. I also must express my sincere gratitude to these people.
Now, I think I’ll be able to find the time for my project going forward, and I feel confident in the quality of my final product. In projects that you are working on, I wish you all the best in putting in your best effort when you have the time and balancing work with well-deserved breaks.
Be First to Comment