Work is love made visible?

I’ve started to move into the academic literacies literature and in many ways I’m feeling a lot more at ease. It feels like familiar territory and the terminology makes sense and I don’t have to question my whole being while reading what others have found in their research about student writing in higher education. I’ve tried to chart the field, highlighting the areas where I need to develop a strong theoretical understanding (see the graphic on the left). Because of the familiar territory I feel more enthusiastic about my research although not as passionate as my colleague and friend who noted to me yesterday – that his idea of the best job in the world, is coming to work and thinking and writing about voice and metaphor – we both came to the conclusion that you have to love your PhD topic and want to do it. It’s the only thing that will get you through the process. At the moment I still feel that sitting down to read and think about my work is exactly that…WORK, a chore you want to finish as quickly as possible. Again I hear the voices of reason and wisdom coming from my supervisors, telling me that the data collection and the actual data will bring everything together. The exciting part of the whole process where the somewhat disconnected points start to cohere will really be crystallised through the act of data collection and analysis. So what do I do until then???? Realise that I have this wonderful opportunity to think, posture, contemplate and theorise about one particular thing – it a rare opportunity and maybe I should learn from my friends excitement and passion.