Those plaguing feelings of self-doubt

[rebeccmeister]

This fall, I am writing my dissertation proposal. Basically, this is where I inform my five committee members about the research question(s) I'm interested in and then propose ways to go about answering/studying those question(s). Clearly I've already started trying to answer some questions--I just don't always know what the questions are, or I get worried that the questions don't sound exciting enough. It's a daunting task that makes my mind go back to questions about why I'm in science to begin with. I get lost in all of the details of what I'm doing and easily lose track of the broader context and why it's interesting.

Another part of the challenge is that the way I ask the question kind of depends on my audience--do I focus on how ants affect ecosystems, or on characterizing an interesting nutritional innovation (i.e. agriculture in ants)? Really I'll be doing both simultaneously.

Meh. Writing. Gotta love it.