Dear Failure Brigade In My Brain: Please shut up

[trouble]

I am so very very very very very stressed about PhD applications. All I can think of is getting that tiny little "Thank you for your application but you are a terrible student and should give up on academia because you are incompetent" letter. Oh brain, you are so awesome, thank you.

I keep reminding myself that one of the professors at York actually wants to work with me, and the other two I talked to were very interested in my work, as was the person I talked to at McGill. I remind myself that I got into Dal on less. I remind myself that Dr T and Dr B would both tell me if they thought I wasn't worth writing letters of reference for, and both have been very encouraging. And yet, the failure brigade in my brain is doing a great job of drowning out the logic.

Comments

[axelrod]

YOU ARE AWESOME. And the failure brigade needs to get a life already.

[ironed_orchid]

They never send letters like that. They send dry letters about there not being anyone in the department who would make a suitable advisor.

[staranise]

*HUGS YOU*

[rainbow]

*fierce hugs*

Iffn you are into somewhat woo-woo stuff, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique, a meridian-based tapping therapy that's easily self-administered at home) is helpful for some folks in shutting up and eliminating failure brigades/

[lilacsigil]

Brains! Why do we even have them? They're so much trouble!

[allies_person]

Hugs. I understand the feeling. I was a nervous wreck while I was applying to graduate schools.

[ginny_t]

You are awesome!

We need an Anna is Awesome Brigade. Yes. Because it's true.

[metonymy]

I will totally join. Can we have tee shirts? And flags?

[ginny_t]

Well, I have absolutely no skill at designing either of these, but I am not the person to harsh someone's flag squee.

[kaz]

You are awesome and amazing and I am sure you will get a place. From what you've written about what you're doing you're much more dedicated and involved than I am and I got a PhD place, so!