Knowledge is Power. Also, it's Fun

For many years I have wanted to be able to pursue a gradudate degree. My undergraduate education was "practical". I got a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Psychology. No job was forthcoming (as a baby boomer wallowing in the Kennedy demand that we "ask what we can do for our country", I was just one of millions who did just that, and there were no teaching positions to be had upon my college graduation). I pursued other educational experiences. Some on the job, some not. I became an actress who inundated herself with the "academic" side of the pursuit. Reading every play I could find, studying theatre history, biographies of performers and writing my own plays.

Then the acting gig came to an end and I found myself enamored instead of writing. Any creative port in a storm, right? But I loved books, reading, literature. I'd never studied English or creative writing and found myself at the back of the literary bus trying to play catch-up.

Theory, writing structure, theme, conflict, point of view, etc. I didn't have a clue so started studying that, too. All sorts of tomes and guides to instruct me.

And once I had a better handle on that, I started taking some classes at the New School. Fun things. Expensive fun things. Too expensive, in fact, to continue. But at one point I examined the possibility of an MFA from the New School. Color me crushed and disheartened, however, when I found that a class of 4 credits, while $500 for a non-matriculated student, charged $700 per CREDIT for a matriculated student. So that same class would be $2,800. Way, way, WAY, out of my price league.

So I discovered that there would be no MFA in this lifetime for me. No advanced degrees. No fun gowns or new diploma on the wall.

But you know what else I discovered? That I can do it all myself.