After several years of hard work, missing out on family outings, parties and having to meet multiple deadlines while feeling like quitting almost every other day, I will be finally graduating with my Bachelor’s degree in English!
I am excited.
I am speechless.
I am overwhelmed with the feeling of accomplishment.
Now the question at hand is…what is next?
Well, I have applied to graduate school to continue my education at the University of Baltimore and study under the University’s Master of Fine Arts program. I have also applied to Goucher College to pursue a graduate degree in Education but that is only if the University of Baltimore does not accept my application. In short, my post-undergraduate education will hopefully propel me into a personally rewarding career as a teacher, writer and self-respected college graduate.
I forget what I was reading and where I read it or heard it, but I remember one of my favorite poets, Nikki Giovanni, once said that a true writer is always writing.
Sounds simple enough but when one doesn’t think their writing amounts too much of anything they won’t write. Or at least that was my story.
I always knew I had the gift of gab and have always been told my writing was excellent.
At work as an administrative assistant I was always given the responsibility to not only implement writing correspondence to other senior level personnel and the like, but I was asked to articulate the wording in most documents as well! That is, and was, a huge charge and an accomplishment for a secretary to have been given with no formal education. With that being said in regards to no formal education on my end, I never thought it possible or warranted for me to write a novel or to even write an opinion piece to my local news editor.
My biggest obstacle and biggest question was who would want to hear from me?
Well ironically pursing my degree in English gave me a voice and receiving so many accolades on my work with grades to prove it from my past professors have helped to build my ego. Though that ego is still quite small I decided to start a blog anyway and write, write, write about anything and everything to my heart’s content. For as I previously mentioned, one of my favorite idols Nikki Giovanni once said, a writer writes just like I assume a baker bakes. So, in respect to my writing I plan to continue to pursue it regardless of who may or may not want to read it! My blog will give me the outlet to write and the freedom to edit my own words. I still am not quite sure who would want to read my babble but let’s just say from this college graduates point of view now, I am much more confident in wanting to write than ever before!
The writing aspect of what I want to do is a project in the making but remember that gift for gab I talked about?
Well hopefully teaching is what will quench that thirst. I applied to the University of Baltimore’s M.F.A. program for two reasons. I understand that it is a terminal degree therefore upon successfully completing that degree, I will be able to teach at the University-level. I also will be able to fine tune my writing as I want to study under the non-fiction curriculum. In my eyes that was the perfect next step in my new-found collegiate career. I would love to be able to form that bond that teachers have with their students while teaching them new and exciting things that they want to learn about. That is what appeals to me in regards to teaching at the University-level. Most students want to be here and desire to learn about Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, Ernest Hemingway and William Shakespeare just to name a few of the literary greats in my book! I want to teach my students about them. I want to dissect their thoughts and engage them with new opinions and ideas while learning how to write it all down with feeling and enough emotion to make someone else see a fresher perspective on different human conditions. That is what writing and teaching is for me! It is opening a Pandora-like box with no hesitation and no regrets.
And if I am blessed enough to teach others what I know and of course learn from my students as well while being able to write essays, articles, novels that touch the human psyche I will have reached the pinnacle of my personal self-described success story. I made that common mistake that most young people make growing up and that was thinking college had little to offer me. Twenty some odd years ago I thought I knew everything. I was young, smarter than most my age and had a pretty good job at the time. College couldn’t offer much more than what I already had. Or so I thought. But now college has given me growth of my mind and of my thoughts well beyond what I once thought was possible. Things are held at a different light for me and I look at life with different spectacles on now and that is a good thing. College has broadened my mind, values and perceptions. I feel like I have more to offer people in way of my opinions. If my new-found college degree in English doesn’t reward me with a beautiful and hopefully lucrative career as a writer or a rewarding career as an instructor it will at least feed my self-worth in knowing that I completed the task of finally graduating from college. I hold so much respect for others who have accomplished this goal. I especially, admire others who have accomplished such a goal while raising children and working in this world with full adult responsibilities like I have, for it is not an easy thing to do.
Yes, I will soon graduate with my undergraduate degree in English with hopes of being accepted into the University of Baltimore’s Master of Fine Arts degree program. And with this degree I want to be that writer I never thought I could be. I want to be that teacher that every student remembers and that teacher that changes someone’s life for the better. And yes, with that degree, I want to brag that I accomplished such a hefty goal while being a mother to six beautiful children without ever breaking a sweat! When I finally hold my degree in my hand I will be a proud woman who will feel as if I have fought against a country to ultimately gain control of the world!
bluekee74 