Adelaide9216

Impostor syndrome is a real thing for a lot of PhD and graduate students. Don't panic if you do not understand everything at first. It's absolutely normal. A lot of the things we learn at this stage implies years of reflection and understanding. Your understanding of concepts, realities, topics will mature and evolve with you. Don't panic if you do not get it at first, it has nothing to do with you being stupid or not deserving of being a grad student. 

Hello everyone,
I will start a PhD next September and my goal is to turn a few of my coursework papers into publishable articles as soon as possible during my PhD journey. Any tips on how to do that? I have never written non-empirical articles for peer review before. 

I am seeing someone. Someone I knew for four years. He made a love declaration to me. He had been waiting for me for four years. I said yes.
Falling in love during the pandemic was totally unexpected and not within my plans. It's not official yet and I am scared. He's scared too. But according to our closest friends, we're experiencing a beautiful story that has a lot of depth, respect and love. Something very strong and rare. 
I am going back to my hometown next week to see him again. This time as a potential lover, and not as a friend. And I am scared. Almost as if it was my first date or the first time I see him (although I've known him for four years and have seen him multiple times in the past years).
I am both happy and scared. 

I PASSED!!! WITH AN EXCELLENT GRADE!!! PHEW!!!

@MarineBluePsy I agree that telling well meaning self described allies to buzz off is an appealing option.  And at the same time, moments like the one we're in don't come often.

(FWIW, I'm continually refining a number of responses that I can deploy depending upon the sincerity and intellectual skills of the person asking. Most of the responses center around urging the person to do a better job of listening, of learning the dimensions of the issues, and of figuring out ways to contribute to solutions that help people of color in the short, intermediate, and long terms.)

I think it is wonderful that you are doing whatever you need to do because no one will prioritize YOU if you won't.  As a person of color (geez anyone else despise that phrase?!) I will say that you can tell all of those well meaning white people to buzz off.  Instead of figuring things out on their own and giving you space to do what you need to do they're overloading you with help requests.  They have access to the same resources and just as much intellectual ability to figure things out.  They are not helpless.  You are under no obligation to help any of them if you do not want to and/or that is not what is best for you.

1. My make-up good really good today (I did it myself!)
2- I cooked a great meat and cheese macaroni.
3. The weather outside was lovely.
4. I felt less anxious today.

Yes. This. And most of the time, they've never been convicted for it.  Sexual violence is almost entirely decriminalized in America/Canada when you look at the numbers. The people who are actually dangereous are not always the ones most people would think of ! 

I am seeing someone. Someone I knew for four years. He made a love declaration to me. He had been waiting for me for four years. I said yes.
Falling in love during the pandemic was totally unexpected and not within my plans. It's not official yet and I am scared. He's scared too. But according to our closest friends, we're experiencing a beautiful story that has a lot of depth, respect and love. Something very strong and rare. 
I am going back to my hometown next week to see him again. This time as a potential lover, and not as a friend. And I am scared. Almost as if it was my first date or the first time I see him (although I've known him for four years and have seen him multiple times in the past years).
I am both happy and scared. 

I'm very saddened to hear this story.  It's understandable that this time would be very difficult; if all of those things were occurring to me, I would also not be as productive as I would like and would be struggling emotionally.  It's not a problem with you -- it's a problem with our society.  
Do you have a Black mentor or an ally that you can talk with?  I've had to do a lot of personal reaching out with my Black students to help them through this, and some of them struggle with the same assumptions about being a burden or somehow feeling like they need to be "the Black student that has it all together" because they know that their reactions will be judged differently (unlike their white peers).  (BTW, one of my students had similar reactions after the George Floyd murder: couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't focus, was losing weight.)  It's not their responsibility to handle this on their own even though that's what they have learned throughout their entire life. 
I hope this encourages you to reach out for--and accept--help.   

hello,
no practical advice here. just wanted to say--i feel you. please take care of you. despite the very real pain of what some of us are going through right now, this will also pass and we will have survived. as black people, the capacity to turn pain into joy is in our very dna, indeed what makes our current existence possible.
as i said, no words to satisfy a pragmatic need, just a small reminder.

Made a media interview today:)

Refer to post already about this

Actually, I did not fail. I used the wrong term because at the time, I felt like I had failed. I was told that I had major revisions basically. If I did not address those revisions the second time around, then I would have failed for real. 
It felt like I had failed because I am a type A student. Even now, for my doctoral coursework, I only got A+ in all four of my courses. I do realize now that there were a lot of external factors to me as to why that happened. 
Someone could fail their dissertation if they don't do the work or if it the person doesn't show enough critical thinking skills or for a lot of other reasons. I did not fit into neither of those. I truly did the work and worked hard and seriously and did not procrastinate. There are people who fail, but it happens rarely to be honest.
In my specific case, my supervisor did not offer the support I needed throughout my master's studies. I have a sense that she overestimated my ability to do this so she felt like I did not need as much support although I kept saying during the entire academic year that I needed support. There's also other factors that were at play regarding the sole person who evaluated me (that I won't go into for confidentiality reasons), and the school of thought of my university/department that differs greatly from the ones of the evaluator (who is teaching/trained at another university).
I don't resent my supervisor for it, but at the time, when we learned I had major revisions and could potentially not get my degree, my supervisor spontaneously apologized to me and said that it should not have happened to me. The week before I got my evaluation back, my supervisor said they had zero concerns regarding my ability to succeed. They did not say so, but it is clear to me that they did not read the entirety my thesis before I submitted it (and they should have), because again, overly confident that it'll be all good. I know academics are busy, but it looked bad for the supervisor as well. All the professors that have had me as a student were deeply surprised that this had happened to me. 
So that in and of itself speaks to the fact that it was not a "typical" type of major revisions situations. 
There were other factors as well that I won't get into for privacy reasons. 
I truly believe that it had nothing to do with my ability to succeed. However, I learned a lot from that experience and have a better sense of what's expected of me in my field when it comes to research and academia although my research skills are always a work-in-progress.

I signed my first ever book contract last week with a major publishing house. 

I signed my first ever book contract last week with a major publishing house. 

I signed my first ever book contract last week with a major publishing house. 

I signed my first ever book contract last week with a major publishing house. 

I am in my second semester of my PhD.  

I PASSED!!! WITH AN EXCELLENT GRADE!!! PHEW!!!

It depends on the type of crime, the circumstances and my general feeling around the person. Otherwise, I don't care. Unless there's an immediate/direct threat to people's safety, it's none of my business.

If your grad cohort is large enough, there is almost certainly someone in it, if not multiple, who has committed sexual assault. I know that's different than a conviction, but they still did a very serious crime. 

I've been rejected before and I know they can sting. There are a lot of factors that go into the publishing process. From what I've seen it could be:
1. The journal is very selective and publishes only a small percentage of submissions (often seen with journals with a high impact factor). Even if your article is great it can still be rejected since competition is high.
2. The article did not quite fit the scope of the journal. Its always important to read the guidelines for authors section, which includes info about the scope to see if it fits. (Scope can be a bit subjective, AFAIK its up to the editor to determine the fit)
3. After review major revisions were requested. Usually when you receive the rejection, the reviewers comments will be attached. If you want to resubmit your article to another journal, its important to address some of the comments from the reviewers before submitting it, so that it might have a higher chance of acceptance at another journal.
I've published in neuroscience and psychology journals so far so YMMV if you are studying different discipline

I am sorry to hear that your paper got rejected. But I hope you feel better in me saying that you are not alone. A LOT of academics get their papers rejected in their life, probably everyone. Almost everyone's first paper gets rejected. I know faculty to this day who papers are still rejected. Take the advice that is given to you from the rejecters and make it better/work on it. You will probably get rejected again (maybe not, but maybe so) and its OKAY. You are not the first and you won't be the last. It happens to everyone and it will happen to you again. If not on this paper, probably others. So please, take time for yourself to heal and then take this energy and do productive things with it. Being a Ph.D. Student (or anyone in any career) means you will hear more NO then Yes in your lifetime. Don't let the fear of NOs scare you from your goals. If you can't get passed this, then I'd say maybe a Ph.D. isn't for you because rejection comes with the territory, from papers, fellowships, awards, assistantships, book deal etc. 

I bought one. I intend to use it to read journal articles and stuff in public transportation, etc.