Rare opportunity to redeem myself

I'm feeling some triumph right now. I'm taking a class in which advanced doctoral students workshop scholarly articles that we hope to submit for publication, and our articles have been sent to faculty members for reader's reports. I just got my report back, and the response was great. The professor said right out that the paper deserves to be published and offered some very useful suggestions for revision--minor revision that does not require a total reworking of my piece.

Here's where redemption comes in--I admire this professor, he's respected in his field (not precisely my field but closely related), and I took his class a few semesters ago. I did not perform well in that class. A lot of factors came together that semester that meant that, well, my heart just wasn't in that particular class at that particular time. I was swimming in mediocrity, fulfilling the minimum requirements and writing a barely decent seminar paper. Since then, that class has been nagging at me. It really bothered me that I did not give my best work and that the professor had formed a low opinion of my abilities. In reality, he probably hasn't thought about me since, and I did get a B in the class, but it still feels like failure. Now he has read my best work--something I am especially proud of--and he has recognized its value. I feel redeemed. It probably shouldn't matter that much to me, but it does, and now it's okay.

My paper doesn't get workshopped until late April, I have a major conference in May, and my exams are in June, so it won't get sent out until the summer. But I'm excited about putting myself out there for the first time. And as much as I understand the risk of rejection, I feel so invested in this piece and so confident that it deserves to be published, I don't think I will take it well if it gets rejected. But I'll just have to deal with that when it comes. We'll see.