PUBLISHED!

In all the busy-ness of the last two months, a rather major event occured in my life; an event that in times past would have had me gloriously celebrating rather than feeling anti-climactic. Last month saw the publication of my first research paper in a major peer-reviewed journal.

I'm still tying up loose ends from my Master's thesis - moving to England put a monkey wrench in my plans to finish everything up in a timely manner - and have to admit that I had hesitations about posting this. Would it sound too much like tooting my own horn? A bit silly to be proud of something that I really should have accomplished a year ago? I guess I see it as an achievement to be pleased with, but not something that will materially change my life. Just another one of those milestones in a moderately academic career.

Between all the months of research, the year of writing (as part of my thesis), the re-doing of the statistics, the re-writing of the paper, the submission to reviewers and MORE re-doing of stats and re-writing, the final acceptance and correction of author proofs, I think I expected to feel something...more. A greater sense of satisfaction maybe? I have certainly waited a long time for this. Closure on that chapter of my life? It isn't really, as I have one more paper to finish up before the entire thesis is published. Fanfare? Plain and simple relief? Hmmmm.

In any case, you can bet that the rambly writing of today's post in no way reflects my writing style in said publication!