The First Day of the Rest of my Academic Life?

So today I had a meeting with a professor I contacted several weeks ago because we seemed to have similar interests and I'm desperate for a project for my dissertation. We had a good meeting back then and she asked me to send her some writing samples. That's when I panicked. My writing is good, but she's a quantitative researcher and most of my stuff has been theoretical and qualitative. So I sent her two papers, one of which was my one peer-reviewed paper and wondered what she'd think of an academic paper that talked about power, cleansing, shit, citizen engagement and Facebook. Yes, you can connect the dots between all of those things! Well, at least I can. :) Anyway, I hadn't heard anything and was just thinking that she must think I'm a complete idiot when she emailed me on Friday saying she had a possible project for me. I was cautiously excited but a little nervous that it wouldn't match my interests or skill sets.

Well, it looks like my fears were completely unfounded. In talking to her about the project, it quickly became clear that even though I'll have to do some research that would not be in my dissertation or would be a very small piece, there is space for me to do some qualitative work and it sounds like I can pretty much design it from the ground up. We talked to the woman from the agency that we would be partnering with and she sounded open to really anything I wanted to do (within reason of course) as long as they got the piece that they needed. There would be funding and everything!! Now I just have to talk to my advisor and figure out exactly what's possible and what's doable.

So, unlike anything else I've done in my academic career, this development could literally shape at least the next 2-3 years of my career at least and maybe even more. Yikes!! It's crazy to think about. If this is the project, this is what I'll be presenting on in interviews. It's becoming very real - the possibility of finally being out of school. The other thing that is really great is that the work I do for them will have deadlines to help me stay on track. That's a gift all by itself!

So now I really have to buckle down and figure out the theoretical framework and methodology of I want to do so when I meet with the agency lady, I can lay out a couple of ideas and see what will stick. Even though there's a lot of work ahead of me, it's such a relief to even think about having a project.