It depends on the time of day

We're at t-minus one week and counting down to the start of my PhD qualifying exams. Depending on when you talk to me, I'm either feeling pretty good about them or feeling like I should be filling out applications at McDonalds. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a fellow graduate student a couple years ago, as he was preparing for his qualifying exams. He said that he was vacillating between obnoxious arrogance and crippling depression. And I think that about sums it up. If you call in the morning, I'll tell you that I feel pretty good about them. If you call at night (and the later it gets, the worse it gets), I might be quietly rocking myself in a corner and unable to come to the phone. This morning was a bit different: After an email from my advisor in which she told me that one section of my exams would ask me about social history, I went into a tailspin of panic. After years of training in social history, I suddenly couldn't remember what it meant. I had to email my friend and fellow graduate student Ben, who graciously jogged my memory. And he didn't point and laugh, which was all the more helpful. I've got to go now; I'm downloading the mp3 for the Rocky theme song, which always inspires me, and I've got a stack of fast-food applications to fill out.