NoBrandHero

One time I wore fairly new shoes to a con. They were very “practical” shoes, almost sneakers really, but throughout the day my heel started to hurt worse and worse. I mentioned to the group that I was with that my shoes were killing me and they took one look at my almost-sneakers and said something along the lines of, “Pft, honey, we’re wearing four-inch stilettos for our cosplays. We have it way worse.”

And then at the end of the day I finally pulled my shoe off and my heel was bleeding from how badly the back of the shoe had rubbed against it (through socks).

Which is a pretty good reminder that misery isn’t a contest and you shouldn’t invalidate someone’s pain just because it seems minor compared to yours; their shoes may look more comfortable than yours but you can’t see whether the insides cut through skin.

I'm not sure it's the smartest plan, but I'm looking at grad schools right now. I didn't think I'd ever want to go back to school, and in a lot of ways I still don't, but I've been reflecting on what a waste my undergrad career was and coming to terms with the fact that writing really is still my passion. More importantly, I've come to the realization that writing is something I'm good at. I received pretty much zero feedback in my writing classes, and almost none of my friends ever bothered to read anything I sent them, so I've basically been writing into a void these past few years. I knew that I enjoyed writing, and that I had a good grasp on language, but I wasn't sure I could claim to be a good storyteller. Now I'm regaining my confidence and... I want to do something with this skill.

But I'm still too big of a chicken to submit to a publisher and, even if I wasn't, I'd have to be a really productive (and probably social) freelancer to make a living off this. Where else can a writer turn to earn a steady paycheck? Okay, ideally, I'd love a job in editing or similar work, but as far as I can tell that's a career that requires a lot of dumb luck if you don't have the experience. Which pretty much leaves... teaching.

I'm not entirely sure if I like the idea or not. I enjoyed tutoring all right, but sometimes it was unbearably draining if I had multiple difficult students in a row. But I can't deny that I haven't pondered before on how I'd structure a class, what homework projects I would hand out, which books I'd assign... It's probably not the best source of motivation, but sometimes I think about what a bunch of shitty teachers I had to put up with and I just really want to run a classroom that gives students a better experience than that. Hence, taking a peek at grad school options.

It's all a big "maybe" at this point. I wouldn't be able to apply anywhere until next winter anyway; the majority of application deadlines are already passed and I wouldn't have time to prepare for any remaining ones anyway. I'm just looking, for future reference.

It's not going too well yet. There are so many factors to pay attention to: I need a creative writing school with a decent reputation, that offers teaching assistantships or similar financial aid, and that doesn't turn its nose up at genre fiction or ereaders. Preferably in the Midwest. I suspect this may be some slim pickings.

There has been a lot of googling, combing poorly designed websites, and getting frustrated. One page gave me security errors, another wouldn't load, a third loads text-only but clearly the HTML is broken... The "good" sites are the ones that require five clicks through overstuffed menus to find the information I'm looking for, if said information is listed anywhere. These are freaking .edu sites and they're near-impossible to navigate.

Why are good web designers apparently so hard to come by?