I feel like a bad mother

I just spent the evening cutting out parts of my very first article, so I can present it in my allotted 15 minutes at the writers showcase. I've cut it from 23 pages to 11. I still need to get it down one more page, I think, the problem is that if I cut much more out, it won't make sense. Not to mention, I feel like I'm cutting the extremities off of my baby.