It's not all doom and gloom

Yesterday evening I received wonderful news. I won one of my University's year-long dissertation writing fellowships!

I feel very excited, but also very mixed, about it all. I'm thrilled that I received this award. It means people are willing to invest in my work, I have an income for next year (whew), and it's big for the CV. I also get to present my work next spring at an annual meeting.

On the other hand, I know many of the other people who applied for this award and they're work is just as strong, they are just as passionate, and the needed the $$ just as much as I did. Having been in the reject pool for so long, I know that there are other really qualified applicants out there who aren't getting the recognition they should for the work they do.

But, for my self and my work, this is a huge boost of encouragement and I'm very excited that I get to keep working FT on my diss and don't have to pick up some extra hours at the local gelato shop (although the recipe stealing potential and free gelato was sounding pretty appealing.....)