Author: JamieKate
•10:49 PM
I was on Twitter today. I know, right? Shocking. And I was reading through all the little tweets about everyone's lives and I stumbled across a link. A literary agent (I'm not sure what liabilities or accusations would arise if I named this agent, so I'll refrain) posted this.

If you're too lazy to read it (trust me, I wouldn't blame you) it's a Very Important Person telling all the young adults of the world to not enter into graduate school for the humanities (art, literature, history...anything basically useless) because it'll be a waste of time. The link, to me, was a challenge. "What?" said I. "I am planning on doing just that, Mr. Man, and I challenge you to dissuade me from my definite impasse of a goal in life."

The problem was (and is) that he met the challenge. He met it very well. He put the fear of Ph.D's and MFA's into my sad little head. But there was one thing that, in this Very Important Person's wisdom, he did not do. He did not tell me what the hell to do instead.

"Oh, by the way, that dream you had of becoming a professor and maybe still having time to write? Not gonna happen."
"Yes, but...what else can I do?"
"Oh, I don't know. Begging and prostitution are always good options. You just can't do what you want to."

Thank you, Mr. Man. For crushing my dreams. In case my lofty, implausible goal of becoming a best-selling novelist (ahem) doesn't work out, I'll consider your words.

*mutters and contemplates the dim, lonely future*
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4 comments:

On January 19, 2010 at 11:07 PM , Kat Riddell said...

While it is true that going to graduate school is no guarantee of getting a job, you absolutely WILL NOT get any sort of job in academe without a graduate degree, and you will be hard pressed to find a school willing to hire you as anything other than adjunct if you have less than 2 masters' degrees. Grad school is very similar to college in that it isn't for everyone, if you want to go, do it for yourself and not for the guarantee of a job. Life will never throw you something you can't handle. If you want it, go for it. Don't let someone discourage you. And when your novels get published you'll have a much easier time finding schools who would like to hire you as their writer-in-residence. So there. :)

 
On January 20, 2010 at 1:16 AM , Jenni James said...

Awww... Well, just write. I never went to college, I travelled the world with my hubby instead. Oh yeah, and had a bunch of kids. My book releases in june, so anything is possible.

Don't you hate posts like that though? Where someone discourages you... grr...

Jenni James

 
On January 21, 2010 at 5:55 PM , Anonymous said...

Oh I'm glad I read that. I think I'll email the link to my father and show him I don't need to go to graduate school for theater because its a waste of my time. I just like to wing it all the time. And you are lovely at book writing and I want your books on my shelf.

 
On January 21, 2010 at 5:59 PM , JamieKate said...

Thanks for all the encouragement, guys. :D I'll worry about homelessness and stuff later. For now, I'll just write as well as I can.