posted 2005/11/08 at 01:14
I'm still not getting better here. Wisconsin is officially off.
Believe me, this is not how I wanted things to go. Conference papers like these are basically currency for my professional life; presenting papers like this is one of the best things I can do to gain leverage when it comes to getting into a good Ph.D. programme. In addition, good conference papers can lead to invitations to write longer pieces for the big academic journals, and getting published in journals is a huge key to earning tenure-track positions and raking in the real big bucks.
I'd held off hope that even if I wasn't up to going to the conference for the whole time, I could drive in on Thursday evening, spend the night in Milwaukee, deliver my paper the following morning, then take right off and be back in Toledo before sundown Friday. I just don't see myself being up to that, though, and I couldn't leave the conference organizers hanging any longer. Even just delivering the paper wasn't a perfect solution, though, as one of my big reasons for wanting to attend the whole conference was to network with professors at other schools and try to get a feel for who had a doctoral programme I would feel at home in.
I'm really disappointed right now, but I'll live. For now, however, I'll sleep, since my body finally seems up to doing that again.
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon