January, 2009
"Dear Michael,
Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that your submission has been selected for publication in the Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs. Your piece was chosen from a highly competitive pool of submissions this fall, and we look forward to publishing it in our 2009 edition, tentatively scheduled to be distributed this upcoming spring."
July, 2009
"Dear Michael:
We have a discussion about your article and I am very sorry to inform you that we are unable to publish it at this time. I know this would disappoint you very much...we really appreciate the tremendous time and efforts you have put on revising the article and coordinating with us."
6 months in between
2 total writes, 3 major revisions, multiple small edits.
Some of the people in academia I trust most, political science professors at Northwestern, warned me about the ups and downs and challenges of the academic world. They told me, "Nobody should encourage someone to go into academics." And they were right.
And for my sour grapes: I would rather be speaking in Chinese anyway. But still.... what a let down.
