User:Femke/RfA debrief

My RfA was probably the least eventful of the decade, with only four "optional" questions asked, and neither of the two oppose reasons unexpected. Still, I’d like to take the opportunity to talk about going through the process with chronic health issues.

I caught COVID a year ago, and have become mostly housebound and a mess since with long COVID. In June I got reinfected which made a dent in my recovery. Symptoms vary highly by day. Some days I can do 7 hours of mental work, on others 2.

Prep
I started taking the idea of an RfA seriously in spring or summer 2021 I believe. At that point in time, I had approximately no experience in admin-adjacent areas, but was well-aware of the low numbers of RfAs, and willing to change that by 1. With a good record of content writing, I anticipated it would take me a couple of months reading/working in admin-adjacent areas before I could reach out to potential noms. From that moment on, I started editing keeping in mind that people may look back at these edits during an RfA. With editing greatly reduced due to a no-fault eviction and then COVID, those few months become over a year.

In March I reached out to Lee, who reached out to Barkeep, and got some good advice to prepare. Of the two areas I am most interested in, PERM doesn’t have any clear preparation path, and AE only half (dispute resolution and closing discussions).

Just before and during
Captain’s Eek debrief contained the advice to choose a week where you can have up to 30 hours to nurse your RfA if need be. I don't have such weeks, so uhm yes.

I did not want to wait till I was fully recovered, because who knows when that'll be. Furthermore, I had been in this uncomfortable pre-RfA period for far too long. So I took a bit of a risk. Aware of the limits to my energy, I initially considered posting a note a week before at WT:RFA asking for people to ask some questions in advance. I dismissed the idea because that might have led to an (energy-consuming) discussion and maybe create more questions.

Instead, I (over)prepared answers to possible questions. (It's pronounced Ah-En-Ee.) Thinking about situations where I said something stupid or did not act in line with my expectations made me quite nervous, but in the end none of them came up.

The first two days of my RfA I was quite nervous, as much about the RfA, as about how it would affect my health. I did absolutely nothing those two days, saving up energy to answer questions. Without many questions to answer, I saved up that energy and even came to the controversial conclusion that "RfA can be fun". Having a day full of energy after months of not really having enough is like when you finally decide to clean your glasses or pop your ears. I then went on to overspend that energy, not having learned from 12 months of pacing and post-exertional malaise, leading to a crash the following week. But that's on me..

Takeaways

 * We really need to ensure an RfA is more accessible. We're not all healthy people without children/busy jobs that can free up enough time.
 * What-if questions are great! For the person asking, they can show though process + familiarity with policies. For the candidate, they can lead you to explore admin guides you weren't aware of (I must admit complete unfamiliarity with WP:account creators before my RfA)
 * With 99% support, I overprepared. I tried to do that to make my RfA less energy-consuming, but in general overpreperation is not a good thing; having people wait too long to ask for the mop creates inefficiences.