A (slight) rant

I've been waiting for feedback from one of my committee members, so I was elated when he sent me an email on Friday that he'd finished reading the paper and put it in my box. Any other weekend I would have raced over to pick it up to see what he said. But, this past weekend I went birthday camping, so I decided to put it off until Monday. Now, I'm glad I did because really when I read his comments I just wanted to cry. Okay, that sounds really girly, but it's true (in case you're wondering, I didn't cry). Anyway, I read his comments through. He makes it sound like I have a lot of work ahead of me (even though the other two on my committee have basically said it's good to go). Before I rationalize this all away, I decided to let myself be sad, angry, frustrated, etc, etc because if I don't do this first, then I might break down in his office on Wednesday. It's kind of like the stages of grief. At first, I had denial: he's wrong, I'm right and why do I have to listen to him anyway. Then, sadness: I've been working on this paper for so long and it's still a mess. Then, frustration: Why can't I do anything right? and He must think I'm stupid.

Now that I've thought more about it, I know I have to work through the emotions and concentrate on understanding where he's coming from. I need to sit down again tomorrow with the comments and work through them one by one. I'm sure he's not completely wrong just as I'm not completely right. We'll have to come to an agreement. Part of the problem is that I haven't worked that much with this professor. I wanted to wow him. Then, I come back down to earth and realize that no paper is ever perfect at first, and he knows that. For now I can cling to the one praise he did write: "Good progress." I guess that's a lifeboat for now...

Today's Grad Gravy: Allow yourself to digest criticism before tackling revisions.