I think I'm ready

My prelims begin in 16 hours!!!

My presentation for my committee is ready, save for a few minor changes after I practice it again.

I had a dream last night that I was giving a terrible presentation. It was supposed to be a practice for my real prelim proposal, but all of these people showed up who weren't on my committee and were so unimpressed and I was an inarticulate fool. I tried to convince them that my actual prelim presentation would be much smoother but one of the professors said, "I've already submitted my opinion that you aren't ready for prelims." She isn't even on my committee!

Thankfully it was just a dream. I'm going to give a great presentation tomorrow. I'm going to quell the butterflies in my stomach and be calm and confident.

I don't understand in detail all of the statistical methods I might use. I didn't read all of the papers I wanted to (or even was supposed to). I don't know everything possible about my critters or my system. I'm not perfect. But I have thought carefully about the questions I want to answer and how to design my experiment. I've thought about how my research relates to what others have done and how it is unique.

I'm going to give a 20-30 minute presentation of my project for my committee members. They (should) have read my proposal, so most of this will not be new. It should help clarify the analyses I plan to use and why. Then, they will ask me questions about my proposal for the remainder of 3 hours and decide if I advance to candidacy.

I'm not going to get kicked out of the program. I'm not going to fail. I might be passed on the condition that I rewrite the proposal, or that I analyze fake data (since I have none of my own). A conditional pass would be a bummer, but not the end of the world. I'm going to be fine.

I'm both nervous and excited about presenting my ideas and fielding questions about my proposal. But even more than that, I'm looking forward to 12:30 pm tomorrow when I'll be finished (I hope) with this process. I'm ready to resume everything else in my life that I've been neglecting for the past month.