It’s hard to celebrate our own awesomeness. In fact, here is a blog I wrote from about 3 months ago that I never posted because I was too embarrassed to share it.
08.08.17: Riding the Paper Acceptance Wave
So this morning I found that another paper was accepted, this time to CSCW a conference that I have not had much success with the past couple of years.
This semester I submitted 5 papers:
ESEM 17
CHASE 17
VL/HCC 17
CSCW 17
ASE 17
I am very pleased to say that 4 out of the 5 of them were accepted! In the moment of working on these I was feeling pretty good initially and then terribly drained afterwards. But now I’m just really happy to say that I was challenged and I see the benefits of doing that every now and then😉. ( shout out to my advisor for the push 👍🏾 🤗)
#TodayWasAGoodDay
Today, 11/6/17, I am still trying to hold on to the paper acceptance wave. If nothing else, the paper wave allowed me to recognize that I needed to eat my donuts and bask in my glow. After I submitted another paper recently, I recognized it was time to give myself some shine.
On top of all of this, I recently had to write a couple short biographies about myself for a workshop (+ department press release), keynote, and invited talk. I was also pretty embarrassed and reserved when someone wanted to share an article about a recent invitation I received to attend a workshop. In fact, writing an updated bio for the talks I was giving gave me even more space to think about all of my accomplishments and how to celebrate them.
One of the talks I gave recently was at a Hackathon, where I was one of the founding members, and asked to be the keynote. I was really in awe when they asked me to give speak. Soon after that, imposter syndrome kicked in–I started doubting my abilities. I was confused as to what led them to ask me to give the talk. Have I really done enough to be giving a keynote? I haven’t even graduated yet?!
After I panicked about me agreeing to such an adult thing, I remembered that someone shared this idea of eating donuts to celebrate career achievements. One thing that I noticed is awesome about Lara Hogan’s example of this is that even the little things should be celebrated, such as finishing drafts! I thought this was an amazing idea! I have heard this idea of celebrating little wins, but for whatever reason this donut manifesto resonated so much with me. I’m convinced it was all a matter of timing. I was so inspired that I started to do it myself and decided to share some steps I used to help me eat my donuts and bask in my glow.
There IS a way to celebrate ourselves while still remaining humble. I outlined what this looks like for me and talked about it in my DiamondHacks Keynote[slides] but here is the TL;DR for those who were not there:
- Come up with a regimen for every time you win
- Get a tribe of superheroes
- Forget the haters, you’re the captain, you’re the heroine
- Stick to your regimen
- When others give you a donuts, take it, but give yourself one too
- Return the favor, and give someone else a donut
I highlighted the 5th point because that was the most important one for me. We live in a world where too much of our worth is placed in the “likes” of others and not in ourselves. People were often patting me on the back for things, but I wasn’t doing it for myself. This was really my wake up call.
Aside: Personally, literal donuts really were not doing it for me, so I took to what really soothed my soul–shoes and makeup.
Eating Your Donuts and Basking in Your Glow from Denae FordThe point…
I share this blog mostly for myself, but also in hopes that it will encourage someone else to celebrate themselves. Honestly, we have all accomplished a lot to get where we are today. What’s not to celebrate?🍩 ✨
philosidee 
