It needs work...

I know I haven't blogged much. I've been writing, but writing papers. I'm up to my ears in them right now and I'm finally getting the nervous energy that helps me get them done. I have to share my experience today though. I went to see my advisor about the directed studies paper I am doing on Wormsloe. I submitted a draft to him last week and his assessment was "It needs a bit of work...before it can be published". PUBLISHED! Seriously. That is not what I was expecting to hear. He said I have more than satisfied the requirements for the course but he gave me additional feedback because he is encouraging me to refine my paper and look at presenting it at conferences and publishing it. And then using that as my writing sample for when I apply to grad school. He's encouraged me to consider grad school since I got here. In fact when I went to him a week before I turned in my draft and complained that I had too much material, his response was "just focus in on your main points and you can write the rest in your masters thesis" I admit I kind of laughed him off because I'm still trying to convince myself that a grad school is the path I want to take. Today though, after he had read my paper, and still keeps pointing me in that direction, I'm a lot more confident. It scares the crap out of me but it's also incredibly exciting. He gave me some great pointers about how to improve my paper and said that if I expand it, it could not only be published but also presented at conferences, which will strengthen my grad school application. Yikes!