Failure

Back from a couple of weeks leave and failure is on the mind. Not entirely my own, but my part in the failure of something larger.

I have a student working on a thesis. A bright spark. Has done the work, and I'd very much like to have them back for a PhD - they have mentioned that the idea appeals previously. The just won't write though.

With a due date looming, I'm looking at what has been written and despairing somewhat. Large chunks were missing days out, and what had been written needed significant working over. Even after an extension was granted, they continue to work on other projects, the missing sections are slowly coming in, but way, way to slow for me to be able to give any useful feedback.

I've been trying to get them to write something for months now, and it just never eventuated. Which is a little depressing, because I've seen the work they do when there is review and feedback incorporated and it is excellent.

All of which is made that little bit more depressing by the fact that I see a lot of myself in them - how I operated when I was a student. And I saw an opportunity to alleviate some of the bad experiences I had for someone else, and what I tried didn't help. It's not all on me, but it very much feels like I've failed them.