Today begins my 2006 research field season at the Blackwater Ecological Preserve. It's going to be a intense season with practially every weekend between now and the end of October taken up with one project component or another. A bit daunting when you consider the season as an entity, but looking at it on a week to week basis...well, it's not too bad. It is simply a matter of persistence, focusing on the component at hand, and a willingness to sacrifice thrown in for good measure. Certainly there will come weekends this summer when I'd much rather be doing something else, but that's ok as long as I bear in mind that this thesis project is essentially an investment in my future, just one step along the academic path towards bigger and better things.
And most importantly, it will be an enjoyable step, something that resonates to my very core. After all, I am a naturalist at heart, one of those people who finds the natural world and its sundry processes far more interesting and entertaining than any artificial offering (television, movies, etc). There are few things more sublime than submerging oneself in a natural evironment, observing and trying to understand some process, some facet that would escape the attention of most if they were placed in such a situation. Time loses meaning in these situaitons. It's just you and nature interacting on some level, the very essence of reality.
2 comments:
They had an ad for duck banding about 2 hours from here when I was in school. I was very bummed...I have to work for a living...so some spoiled kid who's parents paid for everything got it...Take some pics, will ya? I'd love to know what you will be doing...
I know the feeling, Kim. I worked full time when pursuing the undergraduate and now graduate degree. Sometimes I get a little annoyed that I cannot be a 24/7 student with few concerns other than academics, but that's just the way of things for me.
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