in which Tim comes to terms with not being able to do everything he wants to do

It's easy, at the beginning of an experience, to make a lot of a grand plans and generally become very excited about all that one will be able to accomplish. This is especially easy for people like me, who tend to bask in the grand vision of things, ocasionally losing sight of the nitty-gritty details that need to be seen to. After achieving this vision and excitement, there very often comes a time (after having dealt with the nitty gritty for a while) when it becomes apparent that the original vision will not be achieved in the exact way it had been imagined it.

Case in point: my current research. We had originally hoped to investigate and write up eight or ten different cases, in depth. After a little more thought and planning, we lowered our goal to six. Now we are discovering the difficulty of trying to do research during Ramazan. Everything closes early. People are hard to get a hold of, and even more hesitant to set up meetings and interviews. Everyone keeps saying "after Eid, after Eid". So we are behind schedule, and the interviews that we have gotten done have not been quite what we had hoped they would be.

I guess it shows the difficulty of this kind of quantitative research, though. People are not like books in the library. You can't go and get them off the shelf whenever you want, page through them, and quote them to your hearts desire. It's a lot more complex, requiring patience and flexibility.


I suppose that's what I'm here for. Not so much to produce incredible research on development programs, but more to learn about how research works in this field. To be exposed to the issues, before I decide which direction to launch my career in. And for that it has been infinitely useful. I am learning so much more than if everything had just gone right.

I just need to work on countering my habit of getting disappointed at not achieving original goals. I think a little bit of disappointment is appropriate. If I didn't let my goals motivate me, what good would it be to set goals in the first place? I just can't allow the dis-satisfaction to cripple me from continuing forward. I must keep thinking ahead, planning, rolling with the punches, and being creative.

Wish me luck.

Wow. I was more self reflective here than I usually am via this medium. Hopefully it's not too boring for you readers.