Time Travel

I'm currently writing about some texts that I studied some time ago - during my Masters degree (or earlier). Because time is short, I am relying to a large extent upon the notes that I took at that time, but of course using the perspective and broader knowledge that I have gained in the intervening years to interpret them in a way that is relevant to my current research.

It's interesting, though, doing this. It's almost as if I'm working beside my younger self. When I was doing my Masters Degree, I knew for certain that I was a stepping stone to the PhD. I further knew broadly what area my PhD was going to be in, so I made sure that I took notes on anything that might fall into that spectrum (the relationship between sacred and secular in medieval literature). Now that my ideas are a lot more refined, I can reject a lot of the information that I collected as peripheral to my current study, but there are times when I come across a heavily highlighted passage that is exactly what I need; or when I find that in perusing an article, I thought it might be relevant to note down a couple of quotes from, and a summary of, another article in the same book - a quote and summary that prove absolutely invaluable because the article in question is a key moment in the development of criticism of a particular text so I need to show that I've read it, even if I don't agree with it fully.

At times like that I feel like my younger self is my research assistant, and a very competent and hard-working one too. I couldn't have got as far through this PhD without her, that's for certain! Of course, she didn't have two Dragonets to look after, so she had a lot more time. It's useful to have her around. I just wish I could leave her a message to tell her how appreciated she is and to keep up the good work!