Moondog
Mar 29, 2007, 9:52 AM
Post #1525 of 2528
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Congratulations, Lapwing.
The only downside to Goddard for me is that I will be away from my three children - 8, 3 and 2 months - for the duration of the residency. I envy your situation - it is hard to imagine over a week without them, not to mention inconveniencing my partner who will be balancing kids and work and animals for the duration. When I was in law school about ten years ago, I had a friend who dropped out for a couple years in order to be with his young children more. You don't get that time back, was his theory.
So I'm trying to focus on the positive - that it's important for kids to see their parents taking chances, making changes, seizing opportunities and trying to live their dreams in a world that isn't always conducive to that. Also, I feel that in general the more space and time I give my writing, the better partner and father I am. When I was practicing law I was always deeply frustrated because between generating billable time and trying to be present to my young family there was so little time to write. I felt pretty inauthentic to be honest. Over the past five years, I've quit the law and transitioned to freelance journalism - the result is less money but a deeper sense of who I am and what the real work is, which in turn seems to empower me as a parent - no deferred dreams just waiting to explode, you know?
So I'm hoping that pursuing an MFA at Goddard will fall more or less along those lines - that the short-term inconvenience of residency and then work at home (so much more intense reading and writing) will be balanced by the afore-mentioned benefits: that I can continue to be a role model to my children for pursuing the life one dreams of, and that I won't feel the craziness that comes from putting off the real work.
But no mistake, it's the hardest and most intimidating part of this whole process.
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