- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 811
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A bit of background: Some of you may remember my rejection and dejection thread where I explained I was rejected from all the grad schools I applied to. A prof of mine thought this was ridiculous and helped me apply to UC Riverside before their May 1 cut off date. Well, the MFA program wanted to accept me, but they didn't have room (already filled the quota of fiction writers). So they sent my application materials to the new UCR Palm Desert satelite campus. I received my acceptance letter this week.
I don't know what to do. I think I've decided, but I don't know. If I do accept, I'll have to move by August to an entirely new area where affordable living and jobs both seem to be rare.
What do I want to do other than write? I want to work in the publishing industry. Fortunately, living in LA, I know I have a decent chance of finding some job, somewhere. What do I want to do with my MFA? Work in the publishing industry.
So I thought about what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do. I don't want to try to find the money to move. I don't want to do what we did 4 years ago, when we went into deep debt, didn't have a job for nearly 3 months, and generally was miserable. That was scary. I can't handle it.
I decided that I'm going to wait a year for graduate school. In the meantime, I'm going to get some job experience, and I'm going to continue to write. Starting Monday, I'm going to hit sites like mediabistro.com and craigslist and I'm going to paper Los Angeles with resumes.
It's scary to do this. I know school, I don't know the rest of the world. God knows that it's scary. But I figure experience is just as important as a graduate degree, and money is always good.
I also think that I want to do as much writing as possible before I start an MFA program. I have a lot of novels and stories in me right now.
I'm going to sit on this for the weekend. I won't send my Statement of Intent either way until later next week.
I don't know what to do. I think I've decided, but I don't know. If I do accept, I'll have to move by August to an entirely new area where affordable living and jobs both seem to be rare.
What do I want to do other than write? I want to work in the publishing industry. Fortunately, living in LA, I know I have a decent chance of finding some job, somewhere. What do I want to do with my MFA? Work in the publishing industry.
So I thought about what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do. I don't want to try to find the money to move. I don't want to do what we did 4 years ago, when we went into deep debt, didn't have a job for nearly 3 months, and generally was miserable. That was scary. I can't handle it.
I decided that I'm going to wait a year for graduate school. In the meantime, I'm going to get some job experience, and I'm going to continue to write. Starting Monday, I'm going to hit sites like mediabistro.com and craigslist and I'm going to paper Los Angeles with resumes.
It's scary to do this. I know school, I don't know the rest of the world. God knows that it's scary. But I figure experience is just as important as a graduate degree, and money is always good.
I also think that I want to do as much writing as possible before I start an MFA program. I have a lot of novels and stories in me right now.
I'm going to sit on this for the weekend. I won't send my Statement of Intent either way until later next week.