Ha, so some funny stuff happened and I became convinced I fatally poisoned myself at work and had a panic attack and ended up in the ER. I'm fine. I'm completely fine. However, sitting at my computer ensuring that my beneficiaries for my life insurance were correct has made me think some things over. I've decided that I'm going to apply for the MFA program for the university I work at. The deadline is December so I have plenty of time to put together a portfolio. I know that getting my PhD in geology is the correct move for my career but creative writing is my passion and how am I supposed to tell a kid to pursue their dreams if I don't pursue mine?
To that end, I've started reading daily again and I've applied to join a local writing organization. They're selective with their membership and I have to do both a tour and an interview after the application before I know whether or not they will accept me. They have the main queer writing group in town and it would put me with professional fiction writers if I could get in. I appreciate my friends and family and the writers I've met through discord but I'm frustrated and feel like I need to really be challenged and critiqued to progress as a writer. I've been reading through The Black Phone Stories by Joe Hill and trying to read as a writer. I've come to understand I'm much too focused on line to line construction and that I need to really see how every passage is working towards a cohesive whole.
I walk with my Masters degree tomorrow. My relationship is getting better and we're resolving conflicts without it taking days. Bottom surgery is August 12th. I might be getting a patent soon. I have four papers in review. I beat my nemesis move in pole and will be moving to level 2 soon. Life is good.