Fair Praise

I feel pretty good right now. I've got a neuro test looming in 2 days, which ordinarily would scare me into a neurotic, babbling idiot (yes, moreso than now), but I had some good news today.

This morning we had our problem based learning facilitator evaluations, which in my group meant we go through the excrutiating process of meeting at our faculty member's office and "self-evaluating" our performance in the small groups. It's actually not too customary to self-evaluate, but my facilitator is a psychiatrist and mind games are her specialty (okay, it's reall not that bad ;-) ).

The last time we did evaluations in this class I got averages on most of the criteria. The one "exceptional" score was because I confessed that I'd controlled my impulse to strangle the ADHD guy in my group who is constantly figeting and annoying everyone - my facilitator laughed and so I got an exceptional rating for having "good impulse control" ;-) ).

This time, however, she said that I'd markedly improved in my knowledge acquisition (which could be seen in my higher quiz grades and such), but the best part was when she talked about how she felt my greatest strengths were that I am very sincere and I have a good "attitude." My facilitator said I could always improve my skills, but what she really respected about me what my *attitude*. She went on to say that I had a great attitude about learning and participating in general.

Honestly, that's gotta be one of the best praises I've ever received, and I felt on cloud nine for the rest of the day. My facilitator told me that my attitude will take me far, because in the real world "attitude counts for everything." Since I really respect my facilitator (she can come across in lecture as a little caustic, but she really cares about her students - and she brought food for us everyday!!!), that was totally the coolest thing she could tell me.

Of course, she did say "You don't have the best skills, but skills can be learned." Hehe, I guess that means I'm not the smartest, but oh well... :)

So, I'm happy... either she's a good enough psychiatrist to know just what each student wants to hear (many do want to hear they're the smartest), or else I can be very proud of myself. :) Wikipedia:Sincere