I'd had plans for my next post. It was a follow-up to this post detailing some of the fun things I've gotten to do lately, how I've been coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine, ultimately proving my last post to just be a humble brag about how guys, come on, you know I'm actually sort of fun. But, these things come and go. Maybe I'll still write that post one day? Should I?
For now, the impossible to ignore is this: I am writing in a dorm in Tacoma, Washington. The grad program I wrote about getting accepted into here is finally happening! But it's a little weird, so let me explain. Rainier Writing Workshop is a low-residency creative writing program. That means that for three years, I work remotely from wherever with a mentor and complete most of my (pretty rigorous) coursework in that way. And then, once a year, I get to come here for 10 days to workshop with my cohort and take classes with different faculty members. And more fun things that I don't really know about yet! But I will soon enough. After my fourth and final residency, I'll have a Master's degree in Creative Writing. Woah. I am VERY excited about this. It feels like the best life choice that I have made maybe ever. My main reasoning for choosing a low-res is because I know how to do traditional schooling. I love school. Always have and always will. But, historically, here's what happens when Tab meets traditional school setting: Begin semester uber-motivated, doing more than is required, start taking on too much in other areas of life, insist that you can handle everything, have meltdown, scrape by. Repeat.
I want this to be different. I need this to be different. I want to learn how to not just fit writing into my life (and how to do so with discipline), but to blend it seamlessly and irretrievably into my life. The process of applying to schools, preparing to submit my first two workshop stories, and struggling under the mountain of reading materials (703 pages of materials, to be exact) has given me a taste of how seriously this new lifestyle begs to be taken. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to fit this into my current lifestyle (owned and operated by the Johnny Rockets where I assistant manage), but that is a problem for Future-Tab at the end of her 2 week sabbatical. So anyway, this is my life update for the moment. I want to squeeze in little updates wherever I can on these next two weeks because, for once, I am doing.
I have more I want to say, but I'm working on being less long winded in my posts and maybe as a result posting a little more? So for now, I suppose I will go throw away the entire tube of Pringles and Snapple that I have consumed in the making of this post*. I will, however, keep documenting via Instagram story a la Caroline Calloway (are you obsessed with her yet? You will be, I promise. Click here to fall in love. ). Her posts are long stories and her IG stories are continuous stories within stories and I am copying her shamelessly because FOR ONCE I have something to document other than my JR life. Click here to be drastically less amused but hopefully you're fine with that cause we're bffs, right?
OKAY OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH DESTINY IS CAAALLING ME BYE FRIENDS TALK TO YOU SOON XX, TAB
*(note: I had to go buy them because after getting up at four for my flight, some serious digestive-distress en route, and then waking up form a 2 hour nap in my dorm, I ate half a granola bar before realizing that the only snacks I brought have cinnamon in them and I had to venture out and track down food I'm not allergic to. #prayformyhistamines #andbowelstbh)
TabithaTypes 