[6] Research Paper Reflection

     To find my topic for the research paper, I immediately contacted my dad. The idea was to get some family story, so I figured the best place to find a family story is to go to family! He emailed me some ideas and as soon as he said the funnel theory, I knew I wanted to write about it. More than just write a paper, I wanted to become an expert on serious relationships in high school. Once I decided my topic, I became so excited to write. I found myself researching the topic for hours on the weekend and thinking about it in my spare time. That was the best thing for me to do to write this paper: I loved the topic.
     Going to the library to research really helped as well. I found so many sources and ended up narrowing them down quite a bit. I loved researching high school relationships. The one thing I wish I could change, was the topic isn't really relevant to me at this time in my life. Researching this paper a few years ago would have been more beneficial to my life then. Even though the topic research doesn't help me specifically, I can still talk about it with my family and friends and those younger than me. This topic is brought up at every family reunion, so I will be able to talk about it much more. Most of my family doesn't agree with me, so having this extra research to prove my point will make the discussions at the beach much more fun.
     I think the best thing I did when researching and writing this paper was taking lots of time. I didn't wait to write it the night before. I took a few weeks and evenly spread out the work. That gave me time to write it so I wasn't rushed, and it gave me time to think about the topic and generate ideas for evidence and further research.
    It was almost sad finishing the paper because I don't want this to end! This was pretty much the first time I have written a paper and wanted to learn more! My research of this topic is definitely not going to end today.