You May Ask Yourself: What Is She Doing in Bogota Anyway?

You may find yourself in another part of the world…doing research.

I am doing things besides buying bubble gum TP, looking at vaginas and going to parades. I swear. I did say that I’m sitting around the office all weekend doing something.

The truth is, I’ve been avoiding writing about work because I don’t know how to write about work. What do I say?

I am doing Research, the kind that involves being around people and asking them questions to try to make something easier, better. Right now a lot of the work involves sitting at a desk all day, everyday. Sending emails, editing draft after draft of protocols and scopes of work and schedules. Working slowly, with much complaining, on a seemingly endless literature review.

This is the uninteresting part, the part that makes people dislike research. I understand. I don’t like opening documents filled with more comments than text, editing the same paper 23 times, fiddling with citations. I get it. But, maybe, it’s worth it? All the persnickety, nit-picky, flip-flopping that goes into making a decision about which questions to ask, how to ask them, when, to whom, by whom.

I’m in the midst of the paper part. What’s there to say?