Light....

As in how I feel right now. Light. While our time in Wellington has had its ups and downs the past six months have been steady with work, fatigue and stress. So when I met with my supervisors today to discuss the game plan for my final year I was nervous but excited to be looking at what is next. Our meeting consisted of the three of us crowded around a computer screen scrutinizing the data I've collected so far in the last two years. Yes, as of today, I am exactly one year away from my three year mark. And that means I have just 365 days to finish data collection, attend a couple conferences and write the whole of my dissertation. But despite the plethora of work still to be done I'm telling you that today I feel light. And happy. This is directly related to the fact that, after looking carefully at my data, I WILL NOT be running any more self administration experiments. Now this may not seem like a big deal but let me just tell you that it is. Self admin completely took over the last six months of my life and ran me ragged. This happens because once you start an experiment you cannot escape it until its completely finished. Even days when you're not collecting data you have to take care of your subjects; that means you're in the lab every single day for an experiment that lasts several months. Don't get me wrong, I still have plenty of data to collect, however my days of self admin are in the past! Instead, the experiments still to be done are much less intense, easier and quicker to run. For example, the next experiment I'm preparing to start in a week and a half consists of work that will take about three hours and this will be repeated once a week for four weeks. What?! This type of workload is foreign to me but now that I think about it I'm glad that I've done the crazy intense work before the lighter tasks. Light. Light, indeed. I feel like celebrating. :)