School Me Saturday 8/31/24-Facing your fears

I would lay a bet that everyone who is currently in school right now has fears.

When I wrote this prompt to myself, the fear I was facing had nothing to do with school.

Nope.

That fear was the dentist.

Why generations have a fear of the dentist I don’t know.

But we do. Maybe I can unpack that some other time.

However, a different fear came to the surface just after the start of the semester.

That is the fear of your advisor emailing you.

I am sure that others have had this fear as well.

Because the advisors are not scary but in my head, and maybe yours, they can bounce you from the program.

All the advisors I’ve had, save one, would never! In fact, they would be aghast that I even felt this way.

Try telling that to my amygdala.

The scary advisor? That was the one who questioned me about my high score on the standardized test at the end of the ADN program. They hinted around but did not come out and say outright, that I cheated.

Scarred for life, I am sure of it.

However, that was three schools and 2 degrees ago.

Just like the captain who told me I was not a natural runner and to give it up, I have something to prove to that advisor. I ran a marathon out of spite for the captain. I will get my PhD despite the ADN advisor.

As a student, there are valuable things in the emails. Set yourself a reminder and make a pledge to check and respond to emails daily.

That way the advisor is not frustrated and you are not frozen in fear.

While you’re at it check the feedback on school assignments and learn from the comments.

It will help, I promise.

In the latest class I am in, the final class of the PhD before the Big Write, the professor came out and said boldly that we would have the opportunity on assignments to respond to the feedback and resubmit.

This is scary for me.

But I will attack it like I’ve planned for advisor emails. I will give myself a deadline of 1 day for each feedback.

After all, there will be lots of feedback during the Big Write, I’ve got to get used to it.

The teachers and advisors are there to help you learn.

Let them.