As I began the process of figuring out my research question I ran into the inevitable dilemma of what I wanted to write about. I began with the idea in mind that I needed to write about coral reef depletion, as it was something I had a personal connection to. However, after looking through recently published news articles about that topic, I came up dry. I had to move onto plan B, the struggle with overpopulation in South Asia. This struggle is one that can be synthesized with many other trials and tribulations that the people in these countries faced, which was one of the reasons it was such an intriguing topic to me. My original drafted question entailed the effects on health of these people that was caused by the overpopulation. As I continued my searches I was completely blown away by just how many things can be drawn back to the extremely complex, yet also very simple problem of overpopulation. It's simplicity being drawn from how much of a fundamental idea this is as to the growth of our own population. Yet the complexity of the origins and how many outside factors take a roll in determining the ease or pain of going through overpopulating a country truly shine through in many of the articles I read. After having about a third of my research done I came to the realization that almost all of the research that had been done on this topic was done outside of the time frame that we needed to be pulling information from. I was panicked and had to restart almost everything I had done. After refining my searches a bit I found many of what Mr.Phillips called "Unicorn Articles". These were articles I could pull 3-6 note cards from as they were completely loaded with quotes and statistics that drove my argument. Once I completed my research process I began writing my paper. Writing my paper started off very easy as I felt like I had many things to say. That all changed once I hit three pages, and realized I still had three left to write. Once I hit the halfway mark it felt like I hit a wall. It seemed like everything I was writing at that point I had already said in an earlier page. I enjoyed the writing process, genuinely enjoyed it. I was learning so many things about South Asia and its population that I never would've known if not for this paper. Once I got to the conclusion I was completely drained from writing and I had no idea what to say and I could barely think anymore. The next day I decided to finish conclusion and come to the end of my drafting process. The last line of my paper was easily my favorite of anything in my paper, "Our world is slowly drifting towards catastrophe and there will be no way to stop it, no matter how many hands we have on deck." I felt that this one line showed the true idea that I wanted to shine through within the paper. The idea that no matter how many people we have we will not be able to solve the problems that are being caused by this overpopulation. It's like trying to put fire out with fire, you have to take different angles to solve something instead just hoping that the continuation of the problem will stop itself. I finished my paper four days before it was technically due which left me lots of time to edit and revise and make whatever changes I felt was necessary. This process became frustrating as I lost all hope in my paper and had no idea what steps to take to improve the overall quality of my paper as to succeed on it. During the revision process I feel that my paper lost the flow that it originally had as I began to take things out and add things in without thoroughly checking how it interacted with the things around it. However, that observation is completely in hindsight. I felt incredibly good about my paper and I thought it was some of the best work I had ever done. After turning in my paper I was exuberant to find out what I got on it, only to be discouraged at the paper being handed back to me for MLA issues at the end of class. I fixed these issues and a friend printed it out at their house and resubmitted for me so that I would only face the five point deduction, as I had no more change left to print my essay in the library. After this I became extremely stressed about my paper and the quality of it and if I could still get a grade I was hoping for on it. Going into winter break I would check for the grade every single day in hopes of seeing my English grade climb the few points I needed to do as well as I'd hoped to in the class. After returning from break all of my friends had received their papers back and had done as well as I had hoped to do on it, and I remained full of hope for the paper. When I received my paper I was disappointed, but now I realize where I went wrong and I can grow from the process. I enjoyed learning about everything that I could about India, China and Pakistan and how overpopulation is harming all of them. Many of the facts and statistics that I came across are things that I would not have learned if not for this project. I knew that overpopulation was an issue that needed to be addressed, but I did not realize the full extent of it and how readily ignored it is in common media. I was enlightened as to the beautiful parts of these areas, and also the parts that are sad and troubling to learn about. I was surprised as to just how many things are effected by this overpopulation and hope to raise awareness about it in the circle of people that I know so that something can be done about this issue. I enjoyed this project genuinely, even if I wasn't entirely pleased with the graded response. I can grow and learn from this experience as I have never done a project of this size before.