If you’ve recently started research and you feel a bit lost, confused, or overwhelmed, there is no need to worry. You are not alone. I have been doing research for a year now, and when I first started I had all these emotions on top of the stress to perform well. I was thrown into a topic I had never heard of, in a category I at first didn’t see relevant to my interests. It was shocking and felt slightly like my legs had been kicked out from under me.
It’s the feeling you often get when first enter a new project. You may have a graduate student to help you, or you may be alone. It’s up to you to know where to start and how to take measurements and be able to analyze and communicate the results. And yet for all your schooling you may feel like you know nothing. This is normal. After a year I am just starting to feel comfortable with my research topic. But I still have days that are completely overwhelming, and meetings I walk out of totally crushed. However, if you pick up those pieces quickly and correct your course, then the number of those days will decrease. The important thing is to learn at each step of the process, especially when given a harsh piece of feedback. No matter what the piece of feedback is, you can and should learn from it.
You should know that your professor chose you for a reason. Researchers are smart, whether you believe you are or not, you are. But researchers always take the opportunity to learn. So never dismiss a fact or be unwilling to think about what you are learning about, from an outside perspective. Research will teach you a lot about life, if you allow it. For now, let it teach you not to be scared of new and challenging things. When you fall, and will and should many times, pick yourself up, learn from the fall, and keep going.