I get this question a lot, as a recent post-grad, especially since most of my friends are still in school (I graduated a year early). And I didn't know how to answer that question until just a couple weeks ago, when something clicked.
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When I'm not working at a restaurant (my classic post-college job!) I'm interning at a literary agency, where I read and edit and critique and fall in love with YA/MG queries and manuscripts. I'm also interning at a local publishing company, where I get to proof and format and read acquired manuscripts in all stages.
So the other week, I was sitting in my cubicle at the local publishing company, drinking coffee and proofing this amazing new book (in galley stages right now), and the perfect answer clicked in my mind.
It isn't too weird or sad or terrifying or crazy to never have to go to school again, because the jobs (well, internships) that I'm doing right now are real-life extensions of the stuff I loved at school. (Reading, editing, writing, being nerdy and excited about books with an office full of people who share the same passion.) It's school in the real world -- I get to use my training/practice/schooling at the next level. It's just an extension (an exciting, new extension) of the subjects I fell in love with in college.
And I'm so happy to have discovered this revelation just a couple months after graduating, and to know that while I'll never be in college again (although I may go to grad school...), I still get to do what I love. Read. Write. Edit. Hang out with books.
this is such a great post! although i don't plan on pursuing a degree in literature or writing, i hope i can maybe work in a publishing company some day. because like you, i'd also love to be able to read, write, edit, and hang out with books. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's really lovely that you're working doing what you loved in college. "School in the real world" is such, such a nice phrase.
ReplyDeleteAnd truthfully -- read, write, edit -- that sounds like such a blast! :)
Okay, so you failed as a writer out the gate and now you're the gatekeeper to other people's work? No wonder publishing is in such dire straights these days. This makes no sense at all. Completely ass backwards. Only in America does mediocrity get rewarded.
ReplyDeleteWow. And only online can people hide their nastiness behind anonymity. Classy.
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