Highs and Lows

Mood: Bummed
Music: Slipknot, self-titled

There is a great Simpson’s quote about the so-called MTV generation. Lisa says that “nothing can upset us, we’re the MTV generation. We feel neither highs nor lows”. Homer responds by asking “what’s it like?” to which Lisa answers “eh”. Everyone must occasionally wish that feelings were not so powerful; that we could somehow walk an emotional middle ground. Of course, we can’t really do that. We’re human and we feel (though I think that if some parts of the brain are damaged we lose certain emotions). Emotions are on my mind because over the span of a weekend I experienced both giddy highs and de-motivating lows. On Friday, I got my MSc diploma in the mail. It feels great to see your name next to the term ‘Master’ (in English or Finnish). Further, my thesis was graded as laudatur (excellent), so my self-esteem was sky-high. I was ready to celebrate. Fortunately for me, the celebration took the form of a visit to a summer cottage with friends for the weekend. At the cottage we enjoyed sauna, beer, sausage, boating, bad fishing, jagermeister and perfect weather (see pic for what the lake looked like in the middle of the night). It was just a great time. As everyone knows, though, the highs don’t last. I came home on Sunday evening, turned on my computer, and checked my emails. I received an email about one of the manuscripts I had written from my Master’s research and submitted to a scientific journal. It was rejected. This was a first for me. The first two manuscripts I had written were published in the first journals I submitted them to (after considerable revision). Well, this email killed my weekend high. The worst part about getting a manuscript rejected is that the people who reviewed the paper need to justify their decision to reject the manuscript. That means they are free to say rather unflattering things about your work. For example, one reviewer stated that my knowledge of the literature was “poor”, and that I was “trying to make the best of a bad job”. Ouch. Criticism is a part of life, but it isn’t something that is easy to ignore. I’m bummed now, but hopefully I’ll get over this and get this work published somewhere. Just need to re-motivate myself…

Dan