Cross Your Fingers

I finally submitted my manuscript to an academic journal on Wednesday! It's been almost a year since I defended my thesis and, while it needed some work before sending it to a journal, it really shouldn't have taken me this long. Yes, I started a new job that I like and have been putting a lot of effort into, but what did I do with all the time I had on nights and weekends?

Now I play the waiting game. Hopefully the editor doesn't deflect it from being sent out to peer reviewers (it has its weaknesses but I don't think it's that bad, and I'd hope that Noelle, Nancy, and Stacey wouldn't have encouraged me to submit it if it wouldn't at least get to the peer review stage). There's still a healthy amount of fear, though, from thinking that people who are experts in the field are going to be picking apart my work. I'm crossing my fingers for a "revise & resubmit."

In other good news, I found out that Noelle submitted a revised version of the caregiving paper I helped her out with in grad school (of which I am second author). She's published her fair share of articles in the past, so I'm hoping at the very least that that paper gets published. I always wanted to be an author when I was growing up and, while this work is academic and not exactly the genre my dreams were made of, getting my name in print would be like fulfilling a childhood fantasy.

-KP

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum."
-George Nada, They Live