Self-study MFA

My career path has often seemed like a long series of internships—some longer than others. No one ever asked me to leave before my time was up. Most often, they asked me to stay longer. Sometimes they even promoted me. There were situations where I said to myself, “I’ve learned all I can at this place.” Then I’d move on.

I’ve been: a babysitter, a camp counselor, a fast-food counter person, the coffee-tea-or-me girl at a cafeteria, a cashier at a large lumber/hardware center, Santa’s helper in a revealing (for said lumber center) elf’s costume, an accounts payable clerk (or was that receivable), a data entry clerk, a community college bookstore attendant, then the person in charge of the inventory for that bookstore, a crisis hotline counselor, an individual and group counselor, a bookkeeper for a law firm, and a paralegal. I moved on to work at a university before moving on again to be the comptroller for a universities’ consortium. After my second marriage, I took a “break” to rear three children for about eleven years.

Before my marriage ended, I returned to full-time employment outside the home because my husband did not have a job, and we needed income.

I took a turn on my career path. I worked as a special projects manager for a nonprofit advocacy group responsible for communications and monthly magazine production. I knew nothing about what was involved. But they liked my writing, so they all chipped in to teach me the ropes. From there, I moved to online community management and the curation of user content at washingtonpost.com, lifetimetv.com, kbkids.com, edmunds.com, and eventually AOL. After AOL’s merger with Time Warner, I worked on some of Time Warner's projects. When I wasn’t working for others, I worked at consulting and writing. Before I retired, I worked for a cultural exchange program working with young people from other countries and their host families.

But there is more to this piece than a resume in prose.

I arrived at each workplace with undeveloped or no skills in that field, albeit with lots of book learning, self-education, enthusiasm, and a strong work ethic. At every job I ever held, I felt I was there to learn and win certification. I didn’t always know how to do things, but somehow I managed to get them to ask me to stay anyway. I always felt as though I was deceiving them. Or it might have been, as I like saying, that I’m eminently likable.

I’m here to update you on my latest internship in the world of book publishing. I am hanging in. I didn’t have the credentials (as in no MFA despite being told one was necessary to get published these days). There were a lot of kids in the class ahead of me in terms of practice and product. So I did what I always do. I researched, read, took seminars, attended workshops, and practiced. I showed up. Every day. This time I brought stories and a well of experience from which to draw.

I will finally earn the certification I’ve sought in June 2021 (the new date for my book’s release) when the book is in my hands, on your Kindle, or in the mail to you. Then maybe I’ll feel as though I’ve arrived at my real career and that I’m deserving of certification.

I keep telling people this is my MFA. My book is my diploma and that last item for my resume/vitae. But, if someone doesn’t hand me a certificate, I’m going to design one, print it off, and sign it myself.

Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Then I’m going to hang it on the wall. And finish my other books.