I'm almost finished with my Data Analysis class. I take the final exam and turn in my final project on Tuesday. We turned in an initial description of the final project last week. The trend on everything so far this summer has been 9.5/10 points. The professor never gives anyone 10 out of 10. Well this past week, our group was the only one to get 10/10. That's right! And since I pretty much wrote it, that made the semester for me. My advisor said the professor was retiring after this summer. I looked on-line, and he is always rated a C by students. His classes usually are rated a C also. That made me feel sorry for the guy. I couldn't imagine getting graded for what I do for a living and always being average. I don't think he can help it - he sort of just rambles on in class. I can't say I really enjoyed the class time, but the projects have been interesting.
It's funny to me what gives me a sense of accomplishment. Getting the 10/10 did it. At work the Senior Project Manager occasionally calls me or the things I do brilliant. I think most people would feel pretty good after hearing that, but it usually does nothing for me. I'd prefer that they hire more people they think are "brilliant", so then I would be challenged to be better and could be inspired by the people I work with. At a recent meeting it was generally implied that our team puts higher expectations on ourselves and no one else is complaining about the work we do, so we shouldn't expect so much out of ourselves. Can you imagine? I doubt that would be written up in any management books for inspiring a team to achieve.
I don't think I used to be this much of a perfectionist in the past. I can remember in high school I told Eileen I was finished studying for the biology test because I had memorized enough to get a good grade; Eileen stayed up an extra hour or two and memorized it all. I do believe that is why she is in med school and I'm not. It doesn't really apply for your doctor to have learned enough to almost save your life. So really, that makes Eileen the perfectionist and lets me off the hook! Thanks Nins.
