This week has been a rollercoaster of emotions.
😁 Absolutely chuffed to bits by my professional progress which I recognised when imposter syndrome did not rear its ugly head at this year’s Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) conference. I noticed I’m not bamboozled by jargon. I have so many editing experiences under my belt that I can hold my own in conversations about the nitty gritty and big picture stuff.
💭 A touch of comparisonitis… I haven’t done X, Y and Z yet. Several shouldas and couldas, I’ll be honest.
🔥 Energised by the conference giving me a whole load of new ideas and strategies to try.
😬 A little overwhelmed by the conference giving me a whole load of new ideas and strategies to try.
🙏 Gratitude for the opportunity. I am thankful for technology allowing me to access CPD from home. I’ve learnt so many new skills while jumping on Zoom. Incredible.
🤩 Totally in awe of the cool things that people in the editorial community are doing. And thrilled they have given their time to share these experiences.
🛒 Greedy for new resources that have been recommended to me over the course of the conference. I want All. The. Things.
🤑 Wishing I could find that magic money tree I’ve heard so much about to pay for All. The. Things: courses, equipment, subscriptions and suchlike.
And because of the above:
💤 Tired. Because there’s been a lot of information, a lot of thoughts and a lot of ideas whizzing through my brain this week.
I know this rollercoaster of emotions is completely normal. Conferences are intense. If they didn’t throw us out of our comfort zone somewhat then I don’t think they’d be doing their job properly. It requires some top analysis and evaluation skills to consider how to apply what we’ve heard and what to take and what to leave, identifying our ‘why’ which drives us forward with all of this.
I know fellow editors who were building in some days off following the conference to decompress. I imagine it’s to do with all of the above. Excitement, challenge, overwhelm.
I haven’t been able to do that as I went straight into teacher mode which is what I do at the back end of each week.
So, I went from style sheets to Steinbeck. Developmental editing to descriptive writing. Line editing to linguistics.
But, it’s now the weekend. I’ve made it. And now to decompress.
Lots of reflection, strategizing and planning to do.
But first…
Rest.
Stillness is the key.
Loads to do.
Excited to do it.
But. Not. Yet.
CherryEdits 