How I found my research topic

So the short story of how I found a research topic I feel really interested in pursuing for a while is...

I was really confused for a long time, I went to meet with different academics and discussed ideas, wrote down my thoughts, read on various topics, was really confused for a lot longer, met another academic who was interested in listening to my ideas, came up with some I thought were okay but which he kind of steered me away from and then right at the end of a meeting as an offhand comment I said I'm kind of interested in Young Carers. And he encouraged me to focus on that for a while and see if it captured my attention. And that's pretty much it. This process took me 18 months, not of concentrated effort, but of getting discouraged and then coming back to it when I found the inspiration and then being discouraged and then trying again over and over until I found it.

I initially thought that it might be like a lot of the other ideas and that after I'd looked into it for a while it would stop grabbing me or I'd find some reason why I thought it wasn't a good idea... but so far at least (it's been 2 and a half months) this hasn't happened with this broad research area.

It's so great to have got to this point. Now when I get a burst of inspiration and energy to put into my own research I know where I'm up to and the next step I want to do. And I have this really cool, awesome, wonderful (yeah I know I'm trying to become a researcher and that's my description) feeling when I read on this topic. It's just interest, passion, excitement. I'm someone who is always looking for that in life and when it's not there it is so hard to find but when you find it, it is amazing.

Because I've got five subjects left in my Master of Social Science (Policy and Human Services) I'm thinking of using the assessments to give myself a broad understanding of the area. I'm currently working on a paper for a subject I have called Policy Evidence - really cool subject and interesting tutor too which helps - where the task is to evaluate evidence that has been gathered by an organisation in an attempt to influence policy makers regarding an issue or a problem requiring a policy response. Initially I was looking at focusing on the Carers Australia federal budget submission, however, even though it's a bit older I'm now thinking I will focus on evaluating a submission from 2010 that's more focused on young carers.

An interesting observation I've noticed about myself recently is that when it comes to my own actual research, for the moment at least I don't want it to be linked to anything else but my own passion and interest. I want it to be just for me. I'm currently in the process of looking for a few extra days work and saw something a little related to Young Carers, but the idea of working in the area doesn't feel right for me. It feels like it would almost restrict me from exploring the topic at my own pace. It makes it my work and takes me into the reality and day to day politics of an area. And while of course the politics are relevant to the research, in the past with other passions I have felt that being too immersed in the day to day politics and frustration of an issue discourages me and can make me feel drained and angry. So for the time being I want to keep researching the general area of Young Carers with all of the energy and passion I've got and safeguard and protect this.

Disclaimer: Just in case I change my mind about this topic next week or next month or in a few months... my stance is that this is a process and I'm enjoying it and so there! Very mature:)