Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Ring, ring goes the bell

I have some big news. I'm going back to school. In June, I'll be heading down to Los Angeles for my first term in the Antioch University low-residency MFA program in Creative Writing.

I've been thinking about this for a while. I finally got the nerve to apply to some programs and was lucky enough to get into Antioch which has an awesome reputation. I'm slightly terrified and really really excited.

I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I don't know what we'll do in our classes or what our homework will be like or exactly how much older than my fellow students I'm going to be. It's a big adventure.

The thing that has surprised me the most is how supportive everyone has been. Well, one of my sisters did sort of pause and say, "but don't you already know how to do that?" But she's been totally on board since then. No one has said I'm too old. No one has said I'm wasting my time. Everyone has been uniformly thrilled for me, even my day job although I think they realize that part of the impetus for this is to be able to quit working for them.

I've waited awhile to go public. I needed to figure out where I was going to go and let people know. It's all official now.

Wish me luck! I'm betting it gives me LOTS more to blog about.

11 comments:

Megan Frampton said...

Wow! Congratulations, Molly, that is such a brave step.

Molly O'Keefe said...

Megan it's not me it's Eileen and that's HUGE!!!! Eileen - congrats! How exciting and nerve-wracking and refreshing - I'm so totally thrilled for you. And jealous. Don't forget Jealous!!!

Stephanie Doyle said...

Holy cow!!! That's absolutely the most awesome thing I can think of.

Good for you!

Now go down there... and learn everything you can... and then come back and teach us :)

Are you going to live in LA? On campus? Are you going to go to keggers... please tell me you're going to go keggers...

Eileen said...

I'm really hoping for keggers, too, Steph. I've never actually done a keg stand. I don't think they were invented back in the Pleistocene era when I went to school.

It's a low residency program, so I'll be going to LA around twice a year for about 2 weeks at a time. The rest of the work is via email and phone and Skype.

Connie Flynn said...

Congratulations, Eileen. Going back to school is awesome just for it's own sake. I wish I could join you.

Megan Frampton said...

Oh, geez--I saw it tagged with your name on your GR account, Molly. Sorry! That is STILL awesome!

Eileen said...

I'm happy to share congratulations and awesomeness with Molly. :-) Thank you, though. just applying to programs has been really interesting. I can't imagine how much more interesting the actual program will be!

Anonymous said...

Eileen, that is awesome... completely awesome. So looking forward to stories about those keggers

Anonymous said...

Cool, I've never heard of such a thing. Be sure and report back on the LA life and what's going on in school and stuff...I wouldn't mind looking into this myself :)

Eileen said...

There are a surprising number of low-residency programs. I ended up applying to two of them and had a hard time choosing. I think it's a great option.

I'm not sure how much of LA life I'l get to see. They say to expect to be on campus from 9:00 a.m to 8:30 p.m. each day we're there. The idea of spending that much time so focused on writing is absolutely thrilling me.

Maureen McGowan said...

That's really exciting, Eileen!!! Wow.

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