Ever since I was a kid, I would collect rocks from all the places I had traveled to. I loved rocks. In fact, I originally planned to go to college to research rocks for the rest of my life. When my fear of the open ocean (and calculus) shattered my dreams, I changed my major to my love that I was in denial of: English.

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A year later, I took Introduction to Research Methods with Dr. White. For our final project, my cohort decided to study the reading habits of college students. We conducted focus groups, coded the data, and wrote up our findings. 

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After our last day of class, I approached Dr. White and told him I really enjoyed research. It satisfied the scientific side of my brain. Dr. White asked me, "Have you ever considered doing an honors thesis?" And so began a year-and-a-half-long journey of writing my own research of the musical Les Misérables. 

 

While it's no tectonic plates or seismic waves, I think musicals are a pretty cool thing to research. And I'd like to think the rocks sitting on my writing desk would agree, too.