Win some, lose some.

That's life, I suppose. I got word that one of my manuscripts was rejected by a journal. Not too big a deal- I have a few other journals to submit this to. Nonetheless, it's always a bummer. You almost take it personal, like you've been rejected by a woman. You catch yourself wondering why they (the reviewers) don't see things the way you do, or what they have against you. On a bad day you might even feel stupid.

I was eyeing this journal as I thought my study was very relevant to it. And though this would be my 9th paper to a journal, this one held a special place for me just because I inherited a dead project from a somewhat lazy senior who did nothing, and out of sheer stubborness and diligence (and probably some foolishness as well), managed to salvage the data and improve on it and actually wrote up the entire manuscript myself. I'm probably more proud of this one that my other papers.

I guess I won't complain. That's life, and all in all I've been productive. A mentor and friend once told me, there is a journal for every manuscript that has been written. The question is finding it. You always aim higher, then work downwards if it's rejected. And my friend, being a well-published researcher, gets rejected by about 3 or 4 journals on average before his paper gets accepted.

This for me is just strike two. So, the only thing left to do is to resubmit to another journal. And hope for the best. Though with my 10-hour board exams in 42 days I'm not wanting to deal with any manuscript revisions if they get back to me before then.

Cest La vie.