A Lesson In Heeding A Professor's Advice

Michael DeNicola, Class of 2019, Completed Major in Psychology 

When I first began my project in June 2018, my topic was “How Does Music Affect Anxiety?” My original methodology was set-up by collecting and organizing data from fifty student participants. I completed everything but the results section by December 2018. With a due date not for another four months, I was sure to have more than enough time, right? Wrong. After multiple exasperating exchanges with the Institutional Review Board, I found myself staring at a due date that was just three weeks ahead of me, and I had gained no traction on my research paper.

My faculty mentor had heavily advised against going through with this research, and his reasons soon became my reality. He told me that collecting data is no easy task, analyzing can be even more difficult, and working with the IRB can be agonizing. He was right. It was disappointing, but I had to come to the realization that I just wasn't going to be able to complete this study that meant a lot to me because of its topic. 

Due to my struggles with anxiety and my remedy, music, this topic was personal and very important to me. It was difficult to come to that decision, but in order to graduate, I had to face the fact that I may not walk across that stage if I didn’t sacrifice and change my topic, just as my mentor had advised. It was time to count my losses and I did just that.

 I immediately began working on a project now titled, “Streaming Services: Their Effects on Music Artists.” This topic interested me nearly as much as the original one. I worked many hours in a short period of time and learned an extraordinary amount of information that affects me and many other artists. 

When I completed my research, I thanked my mentor for his patience and flexibility. He helped me research, write, and edit, and deserved to know the momentous role that he played in my project's completion. After I handed in my paper with little time to spare, I thought about my process. I thought about how my mentor had been right all along. I thought about how my stubbornness almost led me to not graduate with my class, and how upsetting it would be to my mentor, my advisors, my family, and myself.  

I learned something from this whole experience. I gained knowledge on how to complete research. I learned more about the art of writing, and the editing process of a paper. The most important lesson I learned though, was to listen to those who have walked in my shoes. My faculty mentor has not only advised numerous research papers before, he has also completed countless research studies himself. He knew what was best for me, and I let that information travel through one ear and out the other about as fast as sound can travel. I walked out of his office with no regard to what he said. I was going to complete my study the way I wanted to, and it almost cost me my graduation cap. Next time, I'll be sure to listen more carefully and with an open-mind to advice because contrary to my own beliefs, I don't know everything.