Nerves and Expectations

So I got my first grad school paper back last night and found I had earned a B+. For a minute, I was elated, especially because my prof said that there were no A's. So this was awesome. And then after that minute of elation, I started to get nervous. There is not a lot of room for improvement with a B+ and there is a LOT of room for regression. I was already nervous about my second paper because it didn't feel as smooth as my first and a lot of the errors I made in my first paper, I also apparently made on my second paper (which is to be expected.... I didn't know at the time that they were errors....) Regardless, I am now a bundle of nerves. I want to continue to do well and continue to produce material that I can be proud of and that my prof will respect and appreciate. But I don't know if I can. I want to be able to show steady improvement but am just filled with nerves, especially about these next two papers. I have no idea how on earth I am going to take a 300 page book with articles by at least 30 different historian authors and respond to it in two pages. Similarly, I don't know how on earth I am going to get my ideas onto two pages in response to those articles in the picture I posted a few days ago. How is that even possible!? On the plus side, I so far feel VERY confident about my discussion and participation in class. It is SO nice to be able to converse with other intelligent people who are prepared, sometimes slightly combative (in a good way), passionate and intriguing with solid ideas that they are able to properly convey. Class last night was great and I continue to look forward to it each week.

If I can just get past these papers....