Time for a change??

Haiz.. it has been about 3 months since I embarked on my PhD project – the real experimentation work that is. Before that, spent about 2 months doing literature research and finding some direction as to what my project will be… Anyway, it seems as though these 3 months has been pretty much wasted. No result so far. The experimental set up seems to have just failed! I’m expecting some proteins to bind to the DNA, but don’t know why just doesn’t seems to get any binding at all! A PhD normally takes 3-4 years including thesis writing that normally requires about 5-6 months to really compile and write a good thesis. Haiz… with the clocking forever ticking away, I’m thinking of cutting my lost and change to another project or focus. 2 months of planning + 3 months of nothing = a total of 5 months – that is like one tenth of my PhD candidature gone! And, there is an upcoming annual review presentation which every PhD student has to take part in this November. It’s already July, and only 4 months away from that dreaded presentation… what am I going to present?? Present all the fail data? And if they ask ‘why?’. I have absolutely no idea! This is going to look so bad on me… and definitely a waste of time isn’t it?? But to give up after just 3 month of work? Does it look bad on me as well – that I can’t take failure or risk and cannot persevere? But, this is PhD! It has a time limit to it, and if I have no or not enough result by this period, I’m going to suffer! I mean I don’t mind mulling on the experimental set up if I’m like those staffs in the lab, where there is no time limit pressuring them. If I were them, I can always try and try again if it fails.

Haiz… but truthfully, it’s been a demoralizing 2-3 months. I’m so demoralized that I really have no wish to tackle this project anymore but wishes to change to a new focus etc. But then, I foresee that I might run into this problem again in future, however I think it will be a much simpler situation to tackle by then. Anyway, since my boss is on holiday and wouldn’t be back till 16th July, I guess I have to stick with it for another week and do what I can to improve the situation… And I’m highly demoralized to the core.