I guess a lot can be said for the fact that I have a Master's degree, regardless of what occupations are or aren't being thrown at me because of it. It's an awesome thing that I was accepted into a postgraduate program, went to Scotland for a year, and came home having earned a Master's degree. I know that I chose my degree on what some might call a whim, but it was the culmination of years of curiosity and passion about Celtic studies. It's just frustrating not having anything substantial to show for it now. Perhaps I will in the future; in fact, I'm kind of counting on that. But part of me wishes I would have gone for something a little more practical--like Museum Studies, so that I might have a legitimate claim to having an interest in being a curator. But at the same time I hear my good friend, Ellar, talk about her MFA in progress at VCFA, and all the fiction writing experience she's getting with huge names in the YA Fiction world, and I wish I'd maybe done something like that. That's what it boils down to though. All the degrees I coulda, shoulda, woulda, all come down to the same thing: writing. I can do that with or without a Master's degree. But I have one, and one that inspires creative writing at that. I just have to do it. I need to buckle down, stop wondering what might happen if I had done something else, and realize that I have a Master's degree in Highland Studies because I'm supposed to. I have a Master's in Highland Studies, and I spent a year in Scotland learning, studying, and experiencing that culture and taking in such incredible opportunities. I don't know what I will ultimately do with my degree, but I know that I have it for a reason and I've wasted enough time wondering if I've done the right thing. I need to write. I already know that is what I am supposed to be doing. I know it--even if I doubt it sometimes. I have been given the experience and resources for some amazing stories, why don't I write them?
As a wise friend once told me: "Don't doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light."
No more doubting. More doing. More writing.
"Everybody who's anybody does Celtic studies" -Wilson McLeod, 2012
ReplyDeleteThanks, Erin. That made my morning. :)
ReplyDeleteAmen, friend. And that's the glorious thing about writing. It's always, always there for you.
ReplyDeleteI just realized that my Google reader was NOT subscribed to this new blog, and I've been missing all of these grand posts.
ReplyDeleteI'm really proud of all that you've done. In the mist of feeling lost, I hope you realize that I for one look at your life sometimes and wish I had as much purpose as you :)
Don't doubt in the dark, or the mist, or the blinding fluorescent lights, or in the taillights of someone on a different highway, or anywhere.
Love you.