One Page
Four years of making lists of the homework I have to do. The methods changed, but the substance didn’t.
I just made a list of all the homework I have left this semester, and it fits on one page.
One page, y’all!
I think I’m seeing the light. I can’t believe I accomplished everything (well, almost everything) on all those lists for all those years. See, this is why I’m glad I went to college. Sure, maybe I could have learned everything without the degree. But college pushed me like I never would have pushed myself.
So on to reality. 21 more tasks to complete before my homeworking days are over for the foreseeable future! (Until grad school, that is…) Woohoo!
That’s why I strongly considered an MFA program. I thought it could produce me to write and read and think at an intensity I couldn’t achieve on my own.
But I talked with a poet one time last year who teaches at Indiana University. He said he thought if a person was disciplined, they didn’t need an MFA program to write. If you can read and think–and I’m pretty sure I can read and think–then you can keep going forward.
The missing link is having people with whom to discuss it. That, I miss. And that, I think, is partly why the Festival of F&W was extra nice for me…to be hanging with so many people who love books, words, and ideas…that was nice.
Are you going to take a little breather before grad school?
I don’t know why I wrote “produce me.”
Yeah, I agree, Ann. Self-discipline makes a huge difference – and that’s another thing college has helped to teach me.
I am definitely taking a breather before grad school; I’m not entirely certain I’m going to grad school, but it’s a distinct possibility.
Typos happen. 
How exciting! Oh I am so glad I went to university for the same reasons as you – it really pushed me to study and learn things I otherwise wouldn’t have had the discipline or motivation to do.