Part of preparing to reincarnate my career is assembling my resume. One of the first things listed on a resume should be education. Well, on mine I have "Florida State University: 2000-2004". No degree listed, because I didn't get one. I started college determined to go to law school, because I wanted to be wealthy and powerful and wear nice outfits in all the TV shows, that's what being a lawyer looked like. Every now and then on a TV lawyer would go to court and FIGHT for JUSTICE. They would win their case and the respect of the curmudgeon judge because they had spunk and truly believed in what they were doing. Or, if it was Ally McBeal, she'd win because she was cute and quirky and ruling in her favor took less time than listening to why her latest hallucination proved her client right. Anyway, I figured I would be a good lawyer because I believed in fighting for justice and if that didn't work, I could pull off cute and quirky.
Well you know what? Pre-law classes are BORING. There were no crusades for justice and I didn't get to wear any suits. But I really liked to write, and it turns out you can get a degree in that, so I changed my major. English courses are a whole lot of reading, and I love to read, so we got along well. Then I really got into my major courses. My short story writing course didn't teach us much about writing short stories except not to write about people dying or falling in love. As far as the structure, the professor told us to rely on what we'd learned in high school.
But what about the eternal wisdom of Simon and Garfunkel?!
In high school, I learned the power paragraph/pyramid structure; a strong introductory paragraphy that goes gradually into more detail, followed by paragraphs that follow that idea going gradually into greater detail. Thinking Like Your Editor says that structure is no longer favored.
I'm gonna go with Simon and Garfunkel on this one.
Later came the poetry writing course. We'd read different forms of poetry then write something inspired thereby. The grading was very loose. Poetry is a fluid genre, it's hard for the professor to be subjective, I understand that. When we started learning about certain poets, the same applied. The professor did not want to pass judgement not only on their work, but on their lifestyles. Some poets live pretty far off the mainstream, which influences their art, I'm sure, so without these choices, they wouldn't have such contributions to literature. When we came to Allen Ginsburg, my professor said, "He was an active member of NAMBLA, and you know, that's cool."
Well you know what? Pre-law classes are BORING. There were no crusades for justice and I didn't get to wear any suits. But I really liked to write, and it turns out you can get a degree in that, so I changed my major. English courses are a whole lot of reading, and I love to read, so we got along well. Then I really got into my major courses. My short story writing course didn't teach us much about writing short stories except not to write about people dying or falling in love. As far as the structure, the professor told us to rely on what we'd learned in high school.
But what about the eternal wisdom of Simon and Garfunkel?!
In high school, I learned the power paragraph/pyramid structure; a strong introductory paragraphy that goes gradually into more detail, followed by paragraphs that follow that idea going gradually into greater detail. Thinking Like Your Editor says that structure is no longer favored.
I'm gonna go with Simon and Garfunkel on this one.
Later came the poetry writing course. We'd read different forms of poetry then write something inspired thereby. The grading was very loose. Poetry is a fluid genre, it's hard for the professor to be subjective, I understand that. When we started learning about certain poets, the same applied. The professor did not want to pass judgement not only on their work, but on their lifestyles. Some poets live pretty far off the mainstream, which influences their art, I'm sure, so without these choices, they wouldn't have such contributions to literature. When we came to Allen Ginsburg, my professor said, "He was an active member of NAMBLA, and you know, that's cool."
That was the moment that I realized - and English Degree was a collection of entirely subjective information, which may or may not prepare me for a writing career. That statement wasn't the only thing that lead me to this epiphany. That semester I was taking a class that taught a book that may or may not have been a novel, non-fiction narrative, or meta-advertisement, it was up to the reader to decide. I was also taking a class that taught only Frankenstein (FRONKENTSHTEEN) stories in all their permutations, because that's what the professor's thesis was about. The degree I was slated to get was not about what I wanted to learn, but about the people teaching me.I think I've turned into a pretty decent writer, despite the lack of letters after my name. The question is, will that absence keeep me out of the running for other jobs, regardless of my actual talent? I guess I'm about to find out.
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