Work....

Tomorrow will mark the final day of my current experiment. That makes the total count for days-worked-in-a-row, wait for it, eighty-six. Eighty-six. 86. 86?! To put this in perspective I ran experiments for ten days in a row as a Master's student. Then after starting my PhD I ran a similar experiment to the one I'm finishing now but I split the labor with a colleague. I remember thinking about how tired I felt when we neared the end of that project just after Christmas 2012. Perspective is an amazing thing. I've never experienced mental or physical fatigue like this before. In a word, brutal. I've realized that humans are not cut out to work eighty-six days in a row. We're probably not cut out to work twenty or even ten days in a row. I'm telling you it does something to your mind. Never being able to escape work. Don't get me wrong I tried all sorts of things to distract myself from the fact that tomorrow I needed to go into work and deal with any number of surprises and crises on top of the general business of my research. But small distractions only go so far when you have a work schedule that goes on indefinitely. In retrospect I realized that I had certain expectations about this particular experiment and all of them were wrong. In the beginning I couldn't catch a break and continually ran into problems, several of them unforeseen. I felt like I was losing my mind because I go to great lengths to be organized and plan carefully to be efficient and productive. But nothing seemed to be working and I felt like an idiot. I kept wondering, "Why am I struggling with absolutely everything?". I talked with my supervisor about this and he encouraged me to keep my chin up and understand that most of these weren't my fault. Rather we had some bad luck and that could happen to anyone. My biggest fear was that I would have to rerun this experiment and I could not bear the thought because these types of experiments last several months. This one had already consumed every waking moment 7am-5pm Monday - Friday and a few hours on Saturdays and Sundays since October last year. But somehow I have arrived at the final day and I couldn't be happier to tell you that our results are robust and provide a beautiful comparison to some previously collected data (this is what we were after!). With that said I will not have to rerun this and I AM THRILLED. And I am proud to say that through all the blood, sweat and tears (those things really happened throughout this experiment....not too much blood, though) I've made great strides in understanding and performing the procedures needed for this type of research. With such a complex experimental process I feel great about this. In an attempt to remain in "the zone" I will be starting a second big experiment in a few weeks. It will run a few months but I feel confident that everything I've learned throughout this current experiment will make the next one more manageable. Here's to putting this experiment to rest! Forever. :)