My most recent week of research will be best explained by my trip home during the weekend.
Stops and starts.
Patiently waiting in Manchester airport, my vision darted intermittently at the departing flights panel. After an hour or so of waiting for my delayed flight, the gate showed up. It aggressively announced: “FINAL CALL TO GATE”, upon which I, and many other passengers on the same flight, sprang up and began a sprint to the gate in a hurried, confused frenzy. Yet, once we arrived, we were greeted by a pair of EasyJet employees calmly making preliminary preparations for boarding. Luckily, unlike the other passengers, I was not about to lay my built-up frustrations on the innocent workers. My research has gotten me used to the unexpected and confused demands put on me by uncontrollable outside forces. I have been accustomed to frequent stumblings upon a fascinating potential avenue for my research, only to find, after several hours of digging down the rabbit hole, that it is not suitable or applicable to my project.
The eternal furthering of the finish line.
Following the repeated delays, I was delighted to hear the pilot announce the flight’s cancellation. As I am sure you can imagine, a rapid scramble ensued to book the next available flight. My desire to get home by the morning of the following day drove me to settle on a flight departing from London Gatwick, which called for a rapid escape from Manchester. At first, upon speaking to fellow passengers, they informed me that I would only need to walk back through security. Could it really be so simple? I ended up being sent on a wild sheep chase around the airport, continuously convinced that the next ploy I attempted would be the successful one. My mentality was similar in my research; the path to completing the work appears so simple at first. Perhaps daunting, but simple. However, only upon starting did I realise how many small goals must be achieved before the big one is accomplished. Though this kind of framing could have been a blessing in disguise, since who knows if I would have dared apply to Laidlaw had I realised the peak I was aiming to climb was merely hiding another one.
Following the rules of the game
Once arrived back home, even as the trip had come to an end, I still had the pleasure of dealing with the aftermath of easyJet’s inadequacies. I spent a couple of well-earned hours navigating a bureaucratic maze, with each person I spoke to entirely convinced that the responsibility for helping me get a refund lay with an employee in a different department. Similarly, research cannot be conducted without certain constraints and demands. The nature of my topic warrants at the very least a lengthy journal article written about it. Yet, Laidlaw requires a 3000-word report, and even worse, an overview within an A3 poster! This type of outcome requires effective work within constraints that arose from no singular individual. But no matter my opinion, I find it more beneficial to work within the pre-established system than spend time complaining about challenging conditions.
Nonetheless, I arrived in time for my sister’s birthday, so I guess it was worth it.
PS: My water pistols were confiscated at security. Not cool Manchester Airport.