“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing”


So arguably, this would mean I am doing research all day everyday… Nah, I’m just joking. I know what I’m doing… about 25% of the time… but that is better than nothing I guess (she laughs nervously.) But anyway, let me get to today’s topic of research, or more accurately, research day.

What is research day? Where does it come from? Who decided to come up with this concept? Research day is the day everyone presents their research they have been doing for a year on a specific topic. It comes from the fact that in the OT degree, research is considered a part of honours that is sort of meshed with the normal OT degree. So we study for four years instead of the usual three, but we graduate with honours, not just a degree. Who decided to come up with this aspect of tertiary education? I have no idea, and no, I am not going to research it. All I can say is he is probably not the most liked person in history.
So back to research day. As a third year, I was invited, along with the rest of the third years, to attend the fourth year’s research day. It was quite an interesting experience that had me feeling two things. Number 1: awe. Number 2: anxiety. Awe because the fourth years put so much effort into these presentations, had really interesting topics, and were really well prepared and in synch. Anxiety because I still have a looooong way to go until I get to that level of “researchness.”

Researchness – a state of being one achieves from being proficient in research.

I’m not get into the topics as much as what I learnt from the presentations I saw. I really enjoyed the topics that were unusual or relatable. I felt a sense of interest as well as a sense of kinship with the research. I also saw the importance of pre planning. One group didn’t only colour code, but actually made shirts and hair accessories to properly match. This made them look very organised and very professional, even though it was T-shirts instead of a formal shirt. From the presentations, I really enjoyed the presentations that had a lot of smart art, as well as pictures as this made it easier to follow and more interesting to look at. When there were lots of words on the slides, I couldn’t keep up with the presentation and sometimes lost some key information. I also really liked the presentation where the PowerPoint theme matched with the research topic. It just rounded the whole presentation together. Everything was so polished and well done. Everyone spoke clearly and confidently. It was a moment of pride that I am going to belong to a profession that has these wonderful people as part of its ranks.


For myself, I felt inspired to reach this level of innovative, intellectual, professional, confident OT. The people I saw on research day are the people who are going to make a difference in the world, and I want to strive to be like those people.

“The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be”

And I know that person is an OT. An innovative, intellectual, professional, confident OT.




References

Zora Neale Hurston Quotes. (2019). Retrieved 5 October 2019, from https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/zora_neale_hurston_132635
Research: the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions | Research Quotes | Research, Quotations, Work quotes. (2019). Retrieved 5 October 2019, from https://za.pinterest.com/pin/347551296222853406/
400 Albert Einstein Quotes That Will Inspire (And Surprise You). (2019). Retrieved 5 October 2019, from https://wisdomquotes.com/albert-einstein-quotes/
Action Research Quotes | Picture Quotes. (2019). Retrieved 5 October 2019, from http://www.picturequotes.com/action-research-quotes
Morse, K. (2019). quotes – Project Neon. Retrieved 5 October 2019, from https://projectneon365.wordpress.com/tag/quotes/

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