Every workday for the past few weeks, I've been leaving home around 6:45 AM and getting back home around 6:45 PM. Part of this is due to the public transit schedule, but a larger part is due to the fact that I've been running a couple of studies and doing a ton of data analysis on top of my regular workload. The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure I've been enjoying it.

I've never been excited about doing research, but I've not exactly hated it either. In the past, I'd always seen it as a necessary step in the long path to a college teaching position, and I've been involved in an acceptable amount of research even though I always would have preferred to have been learning something in class. As it turns out, I now find my classes to be pretty much getting in the way of my research and my own learning that I'd like to be doing on my own, being directed by my own self.

In reality, I think what really happened is that I found out that when I do research, there's pretty much no one who gets to tell me what to do. Sure I have to follow rules and ask for permissions and submit to the wishes of my various advisers, but there's also no one telling me what topics I have to investigate or exactly how I have to go about investigating them.

Unfortunately, I've been sick for a week, so I doubt that I can sustain my current pace without some ill effects. But even if I get burned out soon, I'm sleeping 8+ hours a night, eating 3 meals (and one snack!) a day, and playing basketball a few times a week when I'm not sick. So it's not like I'd be better off spending my free time watching TV instead of doing work.

On the other hand, in a month, or a year, or a decade, I'm sure I'll want to throw all the world's research into the garbage and open a bakery. So goes the cyclical nature of life.