I got some money, I got some money!

Good news on the linguistics front - I was awarded with a $2500 grant to complete my research (i.e. gather data in Bali) for my dissertation - yes! Just the thing I was looking for... Anyway, I'm really quite surprised by this windfall - I didn't even think that I would get such a thing after failing to comply with a point of protocol (out of complete ignorance on my part).

You see, I was supposed to submit my application through a regional director of the program (which shall remain unnamed) on campus. I didn't know about this until the research grant office rnoticed this and said that perhaps I would have to reapply since I didn't follow protocol. Stupidity on my part. Well, I thought nothing of it really until today, when I saw the envelope from the grant program. I was expecting, of course, a short rejection notice - you know, the generic ones they send to all the grant "losers" out there. Oddly enough, there were two pieces of paper in the envelope. I took the first one and saw that it was a "transfer of funds" sheet. Weird, I thought, why would they give me a "transfer of funds" when it's obvious that I've disqualified myself from the grant competition. But then I realized that I may have gotten something from this debacle after all. I opened up the other sheet of paper, which was a letter that said that I would be awarded $2500 for the project. I was just stunned... First I fail to follow protocol, and then I get awarded money regardless of that? What gives? (But I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth...) The people at the grant program agency must have been really, really impressed with my application, or else they wouldn't have given it a second thought. Heh, go figure.

Now I wonder what the purpose of bureaucratic protocol is. Is it to ensure that undesirable options are weeded out? No, because bureaucracy can be random at times. Is it to ensure a sense of uniformity among everything submitted to it? Perhaps, but something must compel the system to choose a few among an endless sea of options. Did I learn anything from this experience? Maybe - I'll try to adhere to protocol as much as possible, but I can't help thinking that my brief departure from it might have been beneficial in some other unspoken way.