Realising how lucky you are

Today started off as one of those days when it seems hard work just to do the basics but you still do them because you have to. You feel like you’re going through the motions and you wonder why you’re doing what you’re doing and if it’s worth it. I felt like that today with my Masters. More interviews to transcribe and then analyse and make sense of. Yeah sometimes research can get on top of you and you wonder if it’s worth it. And then you go to the monthly autism meeting you help out at and see people who have got problems far worse than you have and they’re just coping the best they can. Life hasn’t dealt them the best hand but they’re playing it the best they can. Someone comes up to you and talks about the hopes and dreams they had and how they were crushed despite their best efforts and whilst time has passed you can see it still really hurts them. It hurts them because they know and you do too that they are better than what has become of them and they can achieve so much more with the right care and support. Yet the institutions that should have provided the care and support have failed them and dumped them at the road side, left to crawl back onto the kerb, find their pavement and do their best to get back on the path of life. Your research impacts directly on their personal experience, your research is about people like them and institutions like the ones they have come into contact with and given them a bad experience. This makes you wake up and realise that the research you are doing can have a real impact on peoples lives and institutions and change them for the better. This is research that is important to society, to have people are perceived and how people are given a chance in society to prove themselves and show society just what they are capable of. You realise that your research could change peoples lives and make people happy. You realise that despite how you feel you have to carry on and do your best if not for yourself for others less fortunate than you.