CAMBRIDGE
On Monday morning I officially received my acceptance email from Lesley University's low-residency MFA (that's a Masters in Fine Art, sucka) program. I'll be studying Writing For Young People and Poetry. HOT DAMN! The moment I have been waiting for after all of the late nights, eyes glazed over an ever-present beam coming from my computer screen, wondering when the day would come.
I noticed the shift went from IF to WHEN a few months back. I can't quite put my finger on when I started looking at myself and knowing that it would only be a matter of time when I would be given the chance I have been pining over literally for years. For years, it has been a dream of mine to land some fellowship or enter some residency where my work would be taken so seriously so as to be ripped apart among faculty and peers. Because I wanted to study this writing thing. It's been cool to be told my poems are 'dope' and that people liked my work but something still felt missing. Sure, I had done workshops before where I was embraced by a community of writers who all loved to do this too. But nothing like this.
What this means to me now is that I will finally get to give my craft the respect I believe it deserves by becoming an intentional scholar of it. Of course I read ALL the books and I stay on it where I can but I can't say I have given this art that I love so much a good cool two years to stop and pull it inside out. Not to be corny but I really want to be a master in this. Not only do I want to be equipped to write verse and tell stories like a true G but I want to be able to understand how one comes to do this and be able to pay it forward later on. Inside out. Back and forth.
As much as we all want to front like we don't need it, many of us have been out here for a while now looking for some sort of sign. Some kind of gust of wind to come along and let us know we're walking in the right direction. Life can seriously run you to the ground with rejection to the point that you start believing that all that rejection means you are, in fact, incapable of doing what it is that you really want to do. But I am so glad I haven't given up. I am so glad something has begun to materialize from my hard work, steady motion, and the support of those who believe in me. I am so thankful that one of my many signs finally came on time.