My Mini Meltdown

So it's the end of March and I haven't blogged for over a month... I better get on it then.  I must add that although I'm not posting, I am thinking about it all the time.  Like the last time I posted I have been very, ridiculously busy at uni. 

Last weekend I had a mini meltdown.  My husband woke up on Saturday morning and suggested to my daughter who had just woken up and jumped in bed with us that we would go to Cottesloe Beach and see the Sculptures By The Sea.  I had been suggesting this as an expedition for a month, so at first I was like, yeeeeeeeeeeahhhhhhh!!!  But then the reality dawned on me that I had a million assignments all baring down on me and I cracked.  I ended up going to the beach, but it wasn't without tears and wailing, because I really wanted to be with my kids when they saw the sculptures for the first time, yet I had shitloads of reading to do.  At my husbands prompting I comprimised and took some reading to do on the train.  It wasn't ideal, but at least I got to do both.  I wasn't even paticularly disappointed when we figured out the reason there were no sculptures by the sea, was that the exhibition finished the week earlier.

The result of my mini meltdown was that I went and discussed my predictament with my lovely supervisors (entirely sincere "lovely" there!)  I am not 100% sure what made me think I could complete 3 units at uni, be a fulltime mum and wife, play house and look after myself... might have something to do with the encouraging words of the fourth year coordinator at the time of enrolment.  But anyways... all those balls in the air... I could see the hole I was about to fall into, I've fallen into it before with study, so I had a pretty good idea that if I kept on going the way I was, I was bound to fall in.  My supervisors both said to me, family comes first - drop some units.  So, academics are telling me to drop units, put my family first and look after myself - should I do it... yes!  And that is what I did.  So I am feeling a little more under control and just a little bit in two minds about sitting here writing a post rather than reading for an assignment.   

I have just submitted my research proposal and have decided that I will post the abstract from it for you all to read.  The abstract is technical way of saying summary!  This is what I have been working on for the last few months.  There is a program that the markers may run my proposal through, called Turnitin and if they were to do this my work would come up plagiarised - but at least will be copied from me!  Here it is:

In 2011, 95 % of Australian 15-17 year olds accessed the Internet in the previous 12 months (ABS, 2011).  Adolescents utilise the Internet for education, recreation and interaction, however they also utilise the Internet to obtain health information (Thurlow & McKay, 2003).  The objectives of this research is to ascertain where online Western Australian adolescents are seeking health information, by means of which devices and what their experiences are of using the Internet for health information.  A phenomenological qualitative design will be employed within a narrative framework so as to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of adolescents who have sought health information online.  It is proposed 15-20, 13-17 year olds will be required to participate in oral interviews via online (Skype) video calls, which will be recorded and transcribed. The transcripts will be reviewed and analysed from within an ontological social constructionist perspective. The research will generate understanding of how the delivery of online health messages can be better targeted at adolescents. 

Ta Da.  There you have it.  What did you think?  This is what my year will consist of... researching the online health habits of teenagers.  Hooray!!

Til next time... stay safe.