My journey throughout my research period has exposed me to a multitude of novel words, mottos, quotes, and concepts I had yet to encounter. Up until now, transcendence was a term reserved for either abstract philosophical exploration or to be employed in a sentence to give the appearance of depth, although often these are both the same thing.
One of the principles we Laidlaw scholars were not directly forced into mulling over was that of working smarter, not harder. Nonetheless, it ended up being the primary lesson I drew from the experience. It had always felt rather counterintuitive to me that success does not necessarily arise from working as hard as possible, pushing oneself to the limit. This is particularly relevant to my project, which, rather than requiring endless hours of menial work collecting and organising data, instead necessitated short spurts of research and meaningful thought. My experience during the project taught me the value of attacking my work with a flexible and fresh mind.
I modelled myself after my supervisor’s schedule in writing his book The Philosophy of Force, as well as the routines of successful writers and academics. Although, following my research, I would not recommend following in the steps of Hunter S. Thompson, unless you only plan on undertaking one hectic day of drug-infused mayhem, followed by your most certain demise.
I digress. If I have been taught one lesson, it ultimately circles me back to my first reflection. The more I expose myself to novel ideas and experiences, the less willing I am to remain steadfast on a certain opinion. Before this summer, the more I had trusted my preconceived limits, the less likely I would have been to apply to this program and undertake such an intimidating project. My most valuable new insight concerns the value of knowing the limits of one’s ability and knowledge, and then ignoring them anyway. Never trust anyone to be always right, least of all yourself.
“You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage, just literally twenty seconds of embarrassing bravery, and I promise you, something great will come of it.” (We Bought a Zoo, 2011)