After the MFA

Well, here we go…

While I was preparing for this site, I reached out to a group of people I met while working towards my MFA. I wanted to see what other post-MFAers were up to — and get back in touch with people I consider friends. Eventually I hope to post some of their words and stories about their lives after grad school.

Some that got back to me talked about being busy with projects. One said she is actually teaching. One of my former classmates just finished a couple months ago. He’s looking for work, plugging away at some writing, and I applaud him for that. I finished in August 2005, and didn’t write a word of fiction for around six months. Everyone gets into something different once they’re finished with graduate school, but no one I talked to said anything about it having been a waste of time.

I don’t think it was either. But I sometimes wonder if it was time well spent. Did I do all I could have? Did I ask all the questions I needed to? Did I write the best that I could?

A lot can happen in two years. It’s may not be possible to get 100% out of any pursuit of education. If you’re able to concentrate during the key moments chances are you’ll learn a few things. If you’re persistent, you may apply them as time goes by.

Maybe I did cut some corners in my time learning how to be a writer. There were a few questions I didn’t ask. Classes met from 6pm to 9pm, two days a week. With a full-time job and a growing family (one daughter born in 2003, another in 2005), I admit sometimes I was more tired and brain-dead than a cup of green tea and a chocolate chip cookie (and two or three cigarettes) could fix. Some stories didn’t turn out the way I had planned. And so on.

But I don’t think that my MFA experience is over. The degree program may be done. I have my diploma — in a box somewhere — to prove that it’s all done. Still, I aim to keep learning and to keep trying new things. This web site and whatever else pops out of it will help me do that.