The Research Project

Oh, the research project. How I wish I would have read these books differently. When I read this assignment I was a little frustrated that it was on Reading Lolita in Tehran because it’s probably the book I read the most lackadaisically. The idea of using this book which has a lot of hidden meaning and symbolism to then compare to a theme from another book is overwhelming to say the least. I still have not started it; I just finished filming a video project for part of my history final, and am for some reason, facing a lot of tests in my other classes. It’s not procrastination-just time management (that’s we will sugar coat it as.) 
My first step was to choose a project, my obvious choice for me was the Great Gatsby because it’s the only book I have already read and felt I had some knowledge on, reading it again would only make it easier to understand. Boy was I wrong; looking for the idea of “reinvention” of Gatsby seemed to be quite a stretch. I actually considered Gatsby to be a rather inflexible man who could not see any other side of life than what he lived. I guess that’s the point of research projects right, to dig a little deeper? I can only hope I found a good path to lead in my paper and that it will be in keeping with the topic. I always fear when writing papers that I will completely miss the topic and not meet the criteria of the prompt.
After reading The Great Gatsby again I thought I would get ahead by making an appointment in the writing center, you know, be on top of things. I was told I could not make it more than a week in advance, not that big of a problem, but just frustrating! I am not an organized person and I do not normally do things ahead of time, so this little bump in the road didn’t help motivate me to get ahead on more things. Fortunately, when the time comes and I have to buckle down, I will find a way. It always makes me angry with myself I live my life and do my work this way but it has not changed in years and I don’t see it changing in the future.
When I saw the prompt for this blog I sort of had to vent to myself a little bit about how much it sucked, how much time it’s going to take, how much work it’s going to be. But when I relax and think about it this is what I signed up for and this is what I will need to master for my future education and career. I hope I can turn out a great last essay and really finish the semester and this class of strongly. I wish the best of luck to everyone and if anyone else is feeling overwhelmed-you got a friend in me!