A Bit of a Day

So a thing happened today. I sent in my application for grad school. Which is kind of crazy, since I'm 54 and have been out of college over 25 years. I don't even know what I'm thinking.

Oh...that's right...I was thinking that all I do is go to work and sleep and that I desperately need something...else. A hobby, or something? (I looked into that. There are no cooking or salsa dance classes in my town.)

The program I applied for is an MFA in Creative Writing (Non-Fiction) from the University of New Orleans. It's an online degree - thanks to COVID, no doubt, because it didn't used to be. I know this because I actually considered applying to this in 2019. Only I kind of lost my nerve then.

It basically consists of a lot of reading and writing. It couldn't be a better fit if it offered a graduate-level course in the New York Times crossword puzzle. (I would totally take that class.)

Still, hitting enter on that application caused all sorts of anxiety. So naturally I did what people do when they're stressed out about something - I tweeted about it.

Then I went to dinner with my husband. And told him that I applied to grad school. Since I'd already told the internet. I figured he might want to know.

When I came out of the restaurant, I pulled out my phone. And I had over 180 likes on my tweet.

I'm not sure I've ever had that many likes on a tweet so that was basically going viral for me. I was all, "Did someone big retweet me??"

But that's not really the point. The point is that almost 200 strangers reached out to me and said, "I support you. I believe in you. You're gonna do great." A bunch of them even said that in so many words. Including Faith Salie, from CBS Sunday Morning:

And Bill Tipper, Associate Books Editor for The Wall St Journal

And OMG so many other wonderful, supportive people!

All you ever hear about is the bullying and abuse that happens on Twitter. Which I'm sure is true. But I've never felt so boosted.

I can't believe I'm even attempting this. But thank you to everyone who took a second to click on a heart to tell me that they believe in me. I've made sure to follow back every single one of you.

Also, if any of you can pull some strings at UNO to get me in, please DM me.