Sweet

It's amazing how one line of text can sometimes make your heart can beat so hard that it feel like it's going to burst right out of your chest. That is how I felt today when I opened my gmail to find an email with the subject heading "2005-2006 SSHRC Competition". Seriously, my heart was going so fast I was shaking.

Grad students have to apply for funding every year, to various federal agencies, such as SSHRC, the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Council. This is a long and depressing process because you are competing against your friends, all of whom you are sure are smarter, more capable, more articulate, and more likely to be funded than you. For more insight into grad students, this is one of the funniest websites I've ever seen.

Anyway, first I didn't want to open it because I was 95% sure it was bad news and this would ruin my ability to get any work done. So I closed my email. This lasted for approximately 90 seconds before I realized I wasn't getting any work done and opened it anyway.

The GREAT news is that my proposal is on it's to SSHRC.!!!!! Now I know that sounds anticlimactic and terribly uncelebratory, but it is very celebratory information. These proposals first have to go through a department committee, then a university committee, and then to SSHRC for the final go round. So my proposal has travelled a good chunk of the road to funding. It's not home free by any stretch, so I've still got my fingers and toes crossed....Insha'allah....