Part of being busy at work this week is becaue I've been working on research for a deck for the president of my agency. I was volunteered and since my account hasn't been crazy busy, I was excited for the opportunity.
The beginning of the research was like looking for a needle in a haystack- I didn't realize how much work lay ahead because I couldn't find the beginning. Then, I reallly got on a roll and had a couple of breakthroughs on Friday night. As soon as I started getting into the rhythm, I remembered how much I like that feeling when you're doing research- there are not a lot of tasks where you can literally be getting no where and then all of a sudden, have found a whole new (correct) path.
I took a class in college that involved writing a ridiculously long research paper on a the history of how something was marketed and consumed in America. The beginning of the sememster in that class we had to read a book a week- no joke, a 300+ page non-fiction historical book- and do a college version of a book report before class. We met once a week and seriously plowed through the books. I realized too late if I hadn't highlighted passages, I would have been able to return a couple of the books for a full refund at the bookstore. Anyway, I've digressed....
The point is that in order to prep for this research paper, we were learning how to digest a lot of information and find the relavant message by reading these historical books. It was probably one of the hardest and best classes I ever took because I did learn how to be a good researcher. I also had some fun, as my paper ended up being the History of the Cosmetics Industry. (a very tough subject, the professor said he'd likely not recommend students choosing that going forward).
And now I'm a huge nerd who still gets that thrill when I crack the case on my research. Let's just hope it works for the big man who requested this information/deck. :-)
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