So. I have graduated with my MFAW from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and am now getting ready to make back to the west coast. The end of grad school was surprisingly sad. Normally when I graduate I am so excited to get the hell out of wherever I was, but I loved grad school. I learned so much and met so many amazing people, that I never wanted to leave, but I had to, and now I am moving away. Even sadder. But also happy, because I am making my way back home. 

Between now and the time I move I am spending every second I have to writing and enjoying my freedom before I have to join the so called “real world”. Though I’m still convinced it doesn’t exist. 

I have made a lot of plot changes to my MS, which I am really excited about and I am hoping to make even more. The process of writing my first novel has been a long and painful one. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that nothing is ever finished. I’ve heard published authors who say they can’t read their books once they’re published because they’ll just find more stuff to edit and change.

I don’t know if I will ever finish writing my book. I don’t know if I will ever get it published. But I am so glad that I went to grad school and that I am trying as hard as I know how to to make all of that happen.  

I have just turned in my thesis. Two years, 250 pages and an entire novel that I hope to make into a series. All that is left of Grad school is a few classes and a presentation. Oh, and an end of the year party and then it is off to see my awesome little brother graduate from Boulder! 

Now that it is all over though, I can’t help but want to go back to the beginning. At first I was really down at Grad school and thought that because a lot of people looked down on the young adult/children’s genre in which I write, I wasn’t going to really learn anything, and it is something that has taken me a long time to get over and fight for. Eventually though, I found others who liked the genre and respected my writing, and I ended up learning and expanding my writing/reading horizons tenfold. 

I am really excited for the next leg of my journey, and trying to get my (almost) complete novel published, and to move back to the West Coast, but I am also going to miss class, miss my teachers who really pushed me and taught me so much about writing and most importantly the friends that I have made while I have been here. 

But I suppose that’s life, and thankfully I live in an age where transportation across the country isn’t a life or death mission that takes months, but instead hours, and we have telephones to talk and text and computers to communicate whenever. 

Also, as much as I complained to people about Chicago and it’s crazy weather, and it’s crazy people, I am going to miss the crap out of it. I am going to miss walking down Dearborn by the Newberry and hanging out in Millennium Park while all the little kids splash around in the water, I’m going to miss running along the lake, laying on the beach… I’m going to miss it all. 

So, I am one month away from graduation. Three of them will be spent in class, and one will be critique week. I’ve already finished my thesis, and I starting to send out my manuscript, and I am working on a nonfiction piece which is coming along very well. After the first novel, the second is MUCH easier, at least, that has been my experience so far. 

But really, I don’t know what to do with myself. I am basically done. The only real thing I have left to to give a presentation on a book for my class on Apocalypses. (BTW, it’s on A Super Sad True Love Story) But other than that, I just feel like I am waiting for the end to come and see what comes next. 

The grey-ness however is starting to clear a little. My boyfriend and I are officially moving back to the Seattle area. I am going to miss my Chicago friends SOOO much, but I am also really happy to be going back to the West Coast. I have finished my novel and gotten some good feedback so far, even though I am still waiting to hear back from queries, and I have come up with my plan B to make money, that I will actually enjoy, while still pursuing my dream of being a writer. 

So I suppose things are still a little up in the air, but I feel like they are finally beginning to settle. I am so excited to graduate. It’s amazing how fast two years go by. I feel like I just moved here. And now I am leaving. 

I am exactly five weeks away from graduating Grad School with my MFAW. And I am not going to lie, I’m freaking out just a little. First of all, I am still working on my MS and trying to fill it in and flesh out the details of the world now that I have the structure down. I am also, starting the querying process, trying to figure out what I am going to do after I graduate and where I am going to live. Talk about pressure. However, even though I have so much in the air right now, and everything is in this strange state of grey, I am really looking forward to this next phase in my life. I have a had some really good feedback on my MS, and I know what I need to do to bring it to that next level, and the new nonfiction project that I am simultaneously working on is going great and I am just overall excited to see where all of these things that I have been working on so hard for the past two years go. 

Going to grad school and continuing my dream of trying to be a writer was definitely the right decision. I was so nervous about it when I first decided to try and pursue my dream of being a writer, but I also knew that if I didn’t at least try, I would never forgive myself. So, I guess we’ll see where things go, and I will keep you all updated, Hopefully, *fingers crosses*, I’ll be able to make my dream a reality. Wow, I know, cheesy, but it’s still true. 

So, AWP was…. awesome! I went to as many panels as I could and had an amazing time! Some of the panels were great and I learned a lot from them, for example, I went to a panel entitled: Selling Out The Ones You Love, wherein authors spoke about their experience writing nonfiction and thinking about themselves and the people in their lives as characters which was very helpful for me because the new piece that I am working on is a nonfiction piece and I know that in the process of writing it I will probably piss some people off. 

And there were other panels that were just so awful that I ended up leaving, for example, there was one about YA lit that I was really excited about, and then when I got there it was just the authors reading from their own books, not talking about the YA market like the description said it would be. 

Also, I was able to have lunch with two of my favorite undergrad writing professors and another girl who I also went to undergrad with which was amazing! It was so nice being able to catch up with two of the professors who basically made me want to become a writer! 

All in all, AWP was an amazing experience, but damn am I exhausted. Now, if you don’t mind, I am going to go take a nap! 

First of all, today is leap day, so I basically just wanted to have a post for that reason. Also, this week, here in Chicago is AWP (The Association of Writers and Writing Programs). Since I am a grad student studying writing, my awesome school, SAIC, got all of the writers passes for the event. Honestly, I could not be more excited. There are so many panels, I wish there were three of me so that I could go to everything.