Mail is welcome.
gryffyn@there.net | index of journals | home
|
You might not believe me after reading yesterday's little poem-thang, but
I've been in an excellent mood. This is especially encouraging,
considering that it's the dreaded week before I menstruate (I know, too
much info); this is the first month on new pills, and I've been much less
of a stress-case as I usually am (though it may not be fair, considering
I'm just back from vacation and all). Really, though, last night I came home, read some mail from mom that contained two inspiring articles on hiking, walking and working out in general, got dinner (white bean soup with red pepper puree) simmering, took a walk while it did that, lifted some weights and watered the garden while it "sat" for 15 minutes, finished dinner, ate it, had a friendly, happy chat with David, read, sorted through stuff and was in bed by 10pm. Well, it was pleasing to *me*. The main thrust of my happiness comes from a life decision I just made that won't go into affect for another year and a half. Are you ready for this? I've decided to go to grad school. I want to get an MFA in Creative Writing. Now, I've been kicking around the idea of grad school for awhile, mainly because I enjoyed the Unix class, but even before that, I kinda longed for school again. I suppose it has to do some with the hindsight that I really screwed around too much while in school, and I missed out on all sorts of educational oportunities (read: free classes!). I mean, I've never taken a physics course, not one! Yeah, I thought it would be too hard or too boring at the time, but geez, it would've helped when writing science fiction, now, wouldn't it? Anyhow, the grad school idea has been simmering for awhile, but the main quandary was: practical or not practical? In other words: do I go for something that will eventually make me lots of money, or do I go with my heart? My heart won out. It's about damn time. I'm so happy about this decision! It's like I've finally given myself the permission to go, to spend that kind of money on something that to most people will seem like a waste of time. Am I hoping to get work in the field after this? Well, probably. I mean, I'll be qualified to teach at the collge level after this, and I'll probably try for those sorts of jobs around this area. But that's NOT why I want to spend two to three years (not to mention the money) to get an MFA in Creative Writing. I'm doing this so I'll have nothing to do for those two to three years but work on my writing. Nothing to do but read and write write write (and maybe teach a class or two the second year). Summers free again. No more working at a soul-sucking job involving phones for 8 hours only to come home too drained to turn a phrase! Oh, oh, oh, it sounds like such bliss! What? Oh, of course it's going to be a hell of a lot of hard work! I'm ready for it, bring it on! I really, really think I can handle it, that it'll be good for me, that I'll blossom. Really, I think I'm already a good writer; I can't wait to see what concentrating on it for 2-3 years does for me; it's so exciting! I'm looking at schools around this area: St. Mary's, Mills College (both are way expensive), UC Davis (too far) or, my favorite so far: San Francisco State University. All are ranked up there on US News and World Report ranking of MFA Creative Writing programs, with UC Davis the highest (of these four) followed by SFSU, then St. Mary's and Mills. The nice thing about SFSU (there are many) is that it's close by and extremely cheap: $925 a semester for a CA resident! Their program seems rather intense and it appears to be a three year program; supposedly a lot of community colleges around here like to hire grads from their MFA program, which is also encouraging. Anyhow, I'll quit my rattle on about this grad school stuff. I missed this year's deadlines, so I'm not going until fall of 2001 anyhow. In the meantime, I'm gonna take a summer fiction course somewhere, travel this fall, and come back in December to work on my applications. I love this, deciding what to do stuff. I feel so . . . so very in control of my life.
| ||
| Previous
| Next List of Entries for this Month | Journal Index | Current Entry Home |