I just got an e-mail from a fellow grad student of mine who entered Cornell the year after I did but who has now finished and has a fabulous job teaching at a fabulous University. My brother just finished his exams and my mother-in-law is defending her dissertation last week. Congratulations to everyone, but I can't help but feel jealous and frustrated. What's the matter with me? Why can't I proceed forward to reach my goals? Why does everything I do take so long and come so painfully?

And why must I forever have some hangnail or another causing me pain upon my fingertips?