A continuation from my first post and a part of my goal to have some element of reflection at the end of each quarter and before the next.
My advisor insisted that I am in a very generative phase. In all honesty, I believe her — I learned a lot this quarter, but it’s hard to not feel like I’m not doing enough.
I think the theme of this quarter was “WHAT am I doing?” or just abbreviated to “WHAT”.
Firstly, I started this quarter having COVID. Not the funnest start. This had a domino effect that basically made my January not great. First, it pushed my CSCW paper finishing to the last minute (not fun). Then having FAccT to get in. Then, my partner’s friend came to visit rather last minute, which while fun, definitely was a scheduling challenge given I had just been sick. Immediately after, I had to make the DIS deadline for that paper at the beginning of February.
So basically, January was somewhat lost. February was a true blur and then March was a rush to finish two large, dense theory final papers and a workshop paper (more on that later).
Additionally, I was not working on a small rotation project with a very clear start and end. Instead, I was kicking off my Real Research TM. Which was more nebulous and harder to scope and move forward with.
Overall, there was a lingering cloud of ‘funk’ this quarter. I defintely wasn’t in the best headspace, for several reasons. It happens — especially in the winter with so many changes. But it was something that…
