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Here’s the depressing bit of math I realized tonight… Each of my student transcripts are approximately or close to 30 pages long. There are 10 student interviews. This equals 300 PAGES OF TRANSCRIPTS. Not to mention, another 40 pages or so for the two teacher interviews combined.
So far I have completed about 30% of my transcription, which equals 90 pages, which is pretty close to be long enough to be a thesis itself. In addition to transcripts I will probably have another 50-100 pages of field and reflexive notes.
So… what I’m trying to say… is that tonight I realized that:
A) I (will) have approximately 400 pages of thesis data (300 minimum I’m guessing)
B) I have typed out about 130 pages of said data to date (which explains why my arms and eyes are so sore)
C) It is going to take forever to analyze my data (and I may never graduate)
D) The finished paper is likely going to be over (possibly far over) the original 100 pages I set out to write
E) I should be sleeping at 1:15am instead of making lists about scarily large numbers...
I'm 3/4 done my research interviews! I'm completely wrapped up in my interviews these days. I feel like every moment of the day that is not actually spent interviewing is spent preparing for interviews or at least, thinking about interviews.
I am wrapped up not only intellectually and time wise, but also emotionally in these students' stories. Listening to recordings today I've been close to tears a few times. I don't know how psychiatrists, for example, manage. How can you explore the depths of people's stories and then keep the content and resulting emotions/thoughts to yourself?
I'm not at a point in my research where I can disclose any of the interview content, but I can't wait to share these students' stories and explore them further. They have everything - they make me laugh, make me cry, and provide me with wisdom and insight.
"To be a person is to have a story to tell. —Isak Dinesen