Is there a research honeymoon phase? I am an undergraduate in the U.S. and have worked part time (~15-20 hrs/week) for a research group at my institution for about 5 months now. Since beginning the research I have enjoyed every aspect of it. I have gotten to read literature, submit an abstract to a conference and even work on an open source software project. I love what we have been doing so far,  and can not imagine not doing research in my future. Therefore, I am considering applying for a Phd in the next application cycle.

However, it worries me that I am in a honeymoon phase of research, using the definition from here:


  The short amount of time at the beginning of a new relationship, activity, or pursuit when everything goes well and seems to be free of problems.


I am a very passionate person and, as a computer scientist, know all too well the love of starting a new project only to become deflated and uninterested after the preliminary work.

There are numerous posts on this site similar to "Is a Phd/research right for me?" ([1], [2]) and "How to deal with burnout/loss of interest in research?" ([3], [4]). The existence of the latter questions seems to suggest that a honeymoon phase exists in research.

So my questions are:

Is this sort of phase common in research? Should I be worried about it?

How can I assure myself that this is not a fleeting pursuit? That I will still enjoy research in 5 years?

I understand the latter question might be difficult to answer, but are there any objective tasks I can carry to further explore if research is right for me (i.e. more breadth in research-based tasks)? Also personal anecdotes of how you decided your love of research was permanent would help.
Is this sort of phase common in research? Should I be worried about
  it?


It is common. Whether you should be worried about it depends on you. For example, can you imagine enjoying this even if you aren't "in love" with this. Getting a PhD, even in something you love, will be hard. There will be petty, stupid things that still require time (formatting one's thesis...). Does that strike you as a cost you're willing to bear, or do you only really see enjoying things if they're going well, there's a clear trajectory, etc.


  How can I assure myself that this is not a fleeting pursuit? That I
  will still enjoy research in 5 years?


There's no real way to be sure this is true if for no other reason than people change in 5 years. But one way I dealt with it was to switch labs for a semester, to disambiguate if I liked all research or just the particular research I was doing. In my case, I discovered that no, I really enjoyed this thing and was not actually just enamored with the idea of research.