Becoming a researcher

Sino ka ba? Who are you?

I am one who seeks to lay an offering at the altar of Wisdom.

I live in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is my adopted country, which I have now loved for more than half my life. I hail from the Philippines, the Pearl of the Orient, a beautiful place of many islands, such beauty and plenty of struggle. I am a person of many contradictions bundled up in a chaotic ball of joy and anxiety. I love to watch the birds and pet soft, pillowy moss. I love my husband; I adore him; he is my rock. Without him, I would turn to ash.

I love my life. I want to live. That wasn't always so.

I am a singer,
reader,
writer,
talker,
lover,
daughter,
sister,
daughter-in-law,
systems thinker,
student,
former people manager,
former organisational development professional,
hopeful researcher
and would-be future health professional.

I am unemployed.
I am funemployed.

I am unencumbered.

Ano ginagawa mo ngayon? What are you doing now?

I'm conducting research. A bird of thought has caught my eye, and I strain to contain it. It soars above me but flits closer from time to time. 'Follow me', it trills. 'You can do it', it sings. The bird looks quite unlike any bird I've seen before, but I know there are many like it. It drinks from a nearby pool and sunbathes.

I have a methodology mapped out; next, I will write it down and follow the path it leads.

Then I will write. On the couch, at the dining table, standing at my desk, in stolen moments in my husband's office in his ergonomic chair, at the library in periods of prolonged silence interspersed with the chatter and laughter of teens.

Why? I read that research is a web of knowledge (Neville (2016), as cited by @Day2023SuccessAcademicWriting). I see knowledge like a woven tapestry, with feathers and strands tied together over the dimensions of time and space. I want to join the weavers.

I love coaching; I know what it has done for me and how I've used it to help others. I want to follow the threads in the tapestry and see where they came from and where they might lead to. I want to know more. I want to be better. I want to see the patterns and to celebrate the growth of an industry that is so young and so beautiful and so hopeful.

Kailan ka magsusulat? When will you write?

I can write any day, which is another way of saying I will never write. So let me ask myself again. When will I write? Set myself a behaviour intention, in keeping with behavioural science. I will read and/or write once every day for 30 minutes. There is no need to publish. But. I want to share. I want to join the conversation. I want to speak with those who would like to hear what I have to say, if I have something worth sharing. I would like to lay an offering at the altar of wisdom and ask to be seen as worthy. I don't need to publish, I will submit before end of year. I remember that Cal Newport suggested 'double the time' in Slow Productivity. So times two, I'll publish by next July in 2026.

The bird circles overhead; I long to weave its cast-off feathers in the tapestry of knowledge. I will.

Are you ready to follow your bird's song?

Note: This was written in response to a writing exercise given in @Bolton2014InspirationalWritingAcademic. Then I fed it to ChatGPT and asked it to critique me. I then edited it myself. I'm using ChatGPT as a writing coach, in an attempt to do deliberate practice.

supports:: I am a writer
leads to:: Patterns, Pathways, and Power-Bibliometric analysis

Reference
Bolton, G. (2014). Inspirational writing for academic publication. SAGE Publications.
Day, T. (2023). Success in academic writing (Third edition). Bloomsbury Academic.