On Being Officially "Official"

I have mentioned before that I am in Graduate School. Woot, I know. I have been taking my classes, and progressing with the plan that I would be completing my MA in English, concentrating in Creative Writing - much the same as I did during my first undergraduate degree. (Yes, I said "first"... a longish story for another time. Just call me Mr. Farenheit.)

Anyway, there comes a point - and it's something that is prefered at grad school application - when an application packet must be submitted to the department to "officially" get into the Creative Writing concentration. The packet consists of about thirty pages (for the Fiction genre), preferably between a couple of stories. Being out of practice as I was when I started Grad School, I didn't really have anything current that I would have wanted to be judged on. So after a couple of semesters under my belt, and a couple of projects that I had spent some serious time working with, I had a couple of items that I felt comfortable being judged by. (Comfortable enough that I sent them out over the summer for publication consideration, but I digress.)

At the beginning of this semester, I put in my packet, and nervously waited for a month while three readers reviewed the stories and passed their judgement. Finally, about two weeks ago, as you can tell by the title, I was accepted into the program.

What that carries with it are two things. First, that means that I can continue with my plans - no reevaluations, or having to change my program of study. It means that all I have (after this semester) will be three classes and the Thesis, and I will be done, and all of that is on track from when I first started the program. Secondly, that takes a load of pressure off, now that I am "official" - that hurdle is cleared, and I can actually focus on my projects (which, right now measures to two books in the works, starting to think about the Thesis [tracking for fall 2010], and a few "academic" ideas that I want to explore, to begin preparing for possible PhD applications).

Right. Now if I could just manage to push out a couple dozen thousand words.....