Isn't acceptance the final step?

There are seven days left in this adventure. The land is beginning to rise on the horizon, and i feel immensely calm. I've written about 37,500 words, and i'm confident that i'll be able to reach the 50,000 word goal. i'm about 1,000 words behind right now, but i plan on sequestering myself for the entire weekend and writing until i'm satisfied. i am no longer worried about the quality of the writing or whether the plotline or characters are interesting. i'm confident that even if the novel is a complete failure writing-wise, i've learned enough in the process to have made writing it worth it many times over. my mindset at this point is to finish the story that i've started, good or not, engaging or not. i figure that the first time you do anything, the goal is not to succeed but to learn and to do one's best. this novel is by no means a masterpiece. i don't even know if i would read it if someone else had written it. but that's okay with me, surprisingly. somewhere along the way, i seem to have shed my unrealistic expectations and hyperemotional fear of failure and have come to wonder whether it's possible for any artistic endeavor, when undertaken with sincerity and vigor and effort, to be a failure. I have accepted this work for what it is, even though i'm not entirely sure i've figured that out yet. I feel a little bit maternal about it: no matter how ugly or misshapen or stupid it may be, it's my baby, and i love it.

and after all, you know what they say: stupid babies need the most attention. this one will be getting a lot of attention after this project is over.