My End of Year Doctoral Horror Story

 

Hey guys! Ms. Duggan is back! I know it’s been awhile since I updated my blog but as you know I was working in Italy as a mental health clinician on an archaeological dig site. Don’t worry you will get ALL the details later. I’m finally back at work and getting back to my normal busy life and things are going well so far. But around the time I got back into the swing of things I had a major doctoral catastrophe!

(Figure 1: This is a thumbnail of my latest YouTube video “My Doctoral Horror Story” where I am looking at the camera with a terrified look.)

While I was away, I was still enrolled in two courses that had been going pretty well. I actually finished one while I was in Italy and received an A in the course.  The other course had one last assignment due that I planned to finish once I got back to the states. However, to my surprise it was due while I was in Italy and I was totally not prepared to finish it.

(Figure 2: This is a photo of Ms. Jay, an African American male fashion icon who has a stunned look on his face.)

Working in another country was not as easy as I thought that it would be guys. I mean the Wi-Fi sucked and I did not have my regular laptop that had everything that I needed. Once I found out that the paper was due, I contacted my professor and asked for an extension, which he graciously gave me. I was able to finish the paper before the extension was due and turned it in. This professor grades rather quickly so I knew it would be graded once I returned to work on Monday.

(Figure 3: This is a photo of a finger that is pressing the word “submit” on a keyboard.)

Fast-forward to checking my email that Monday and while he had graded my paper to my surprise, the feedback was horrendous! The email stated that my paper sucked (in so many words) and that I had not taken any of his feedback into consideration. Honestly, the feedback was so negative that I had not intended to respond. But when I saw that my final grade was a C I contacted him immediately, explained my situation, and asked if I could revise the paper since a C meant that I would have to re-take the course.

(Figure 4: This is a photo of Tamar Braxton that reads “I’m so scared.)

My professor agreed that doctoral students could not make C’s and told me not to worry because my grade was actually a B! The sense of relief that I immediately felt was overwhelming ya’ll!  As a doctoral student, this situation taught me to play it cool, explain your situation, and hope for the best. It also taught me that critical feedback is okay but it’s all in how YOU respond. So be great ya’ll and keep pushing on! Wanna hear more? Head over to YouTube to check out my latest video and tell me what you think!