If we’re friends on Facebook, you’ve already seen me rejoicing about my acceptance into graduate school– The Queens University MFA in Creative Writing in Charlotte, NC. I haven’t heard from the other program I applied to yet, but I’m very impressed with the Queens program and I think it’s a great fit.

Admittedly, it makes absolutely no sense to spend $25,000 on a degree in a field with no jobs, as traditional publishing implodes. It’s highly unlikely I’ll get a job in writing or a book published because of my MFA.

But have you ever made a decision in life that looks so wrong on the outside, and yet, on the inside your heart smiles so widely it nearly bursts out of your ribs?

That’s kind of how I feel right now about starting my MFA.

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Whenever I get to a point where I’m fed up with rejections and feel like I can’t submit anymore, a published author comes along and tells me their own enormous difficulties on her or his road to publication.

On Friday afternoon, I had the pleasure of spending time with best-selling author Meg Waite Clayton, before her talk entitled Bulletproof Submissions at the Atlanta Writers Club on Saturday. If I ever become a successful writer (get a book published), I hope I can be as honest, forthright, and encouraging to other struggling writers as Meg was with me. Her story made me feel a little better about where I am in this journey, and motivated me to push on.

Thanks, Meg. I really needed that.