Blog Post 3

        I am finally done with my research. I have learned so much and taken so much away from this project. Not only did I learn a lot about ski goggles and how they work, but also how to interact with others in a productive way. I've learned so much about ski goggles from this project that I now know how to make my own informed decisions about what goggles to wear on what days in order to keep myself safe. I truly know how large their effects on reaction time are now, and I can make my own educated decisions to keep my family, friends, and myself safe. Every time I go skiing, I have a new pool of knowledge that increases not only my but also everyone else's safety overall. I feel my content really does apply holistically to the real world and that the value of my research in building up skier safety can't be ignored. I worked hard to ensure I met my goals, and it's paying off every day I go skiing from now on.

        The final presentation mostly taught me more about myself than anything else. I learned from my final presentation how easily I tend to stumble over words, talk quickly, and skip major parts of my script when I'm nervous. I feel that I practiced and practiced and practiced, but nothing was enough. I practiced my script for 2 weeks straight, and still stumbled during the presentation. That just goes to show me now how much practice with speaking in front of others I really need. I now know I need to practice my script even more than before, and overall need more practice speaking in front of others. I now know how important I need to take presentations and how much I need to practice in order to ensure I present well and fluently. My academic paper taught me the importance of small amounts of hard work daily. I now know how crucial just small amounts of work can be every day. I worked just a little bit on my paper every day, and it ended up being a high-quality, not rushed, and fluent paper due to that fact. I have learned the importance of not procrastinating on my paper overall through this project.

        The hardest part of the process of this paper was definitely the data collection, but it taught me so much about myself. First of all, I had to go out and ask strangers on the street to participate in my project, which came with a lot of social anxiety as I felt like people were always looking at me. I overall was able to overcome this fact and grow into a more confident researcher and began to gain more participants, but it was hard at first. This translates to college and beyond as I feel more confident now in uncomfortable situations, and have more skills to get things done when they are hard, for example, public speaking. I feel this project has greatly improved my public speaking in ways unrelated to the presentation, and it has to do a lot with my data collection. Also, I feel I have grown in my people skills a lot through my data collection. I have not only overcome the anxiety that came with the project, but also learned how to better talk to people and effectively communicate with them. Talking to strangers was a huge part of my data collection, and I now feel I am much more equipped to do that in college and beyond, thanks to this project and the data collection aspect with random participants. 

        I would like to thank everyone who was always there for me during my project. First of all, Mrs. Dobos, of course. She was always there and really helpful when I had any questions, needed help with anything, and was always there for me when I had problems. She always helped me resolve issues I had and was always patient and kind with me, which I really appreciate. Second, my mom was always there for me when this project stressed me out. This project's data collection process came with a lot of hindrances and stressors constantly, and she was always there to help calm me down and think of solutions in hard times. She also let me present to her many times for practice, which I'm sure could not have been too fun for her, so for that, I'm grateful. I finally also really appreciate all the people in this class who were always here to lift me and support me. We had a strong community of support in this class, and I feel that we always had each other's backs in this class. Overall, I wouldn't be here by myself, and I'm super grateful for everyone who was always there to support me in my research.