Yes, I will be applying to MFA (Poetry concentration) programs. It's a long path, let's say that :) Assuming I get into a program under the conditions I want, (which is looking more and more like a good chance) it will still be another year and a bit before I am enrolled and taking classes anywhere.

Well, you know, I'd like to first say that I think while I understand all your feelings in that regard, the conditions under which any of your children might choose to go to school for poetry probably would matter more than maybe you guys discussed at the time. For instance, are they going for a BA or MFA? In my opinion what you get for your BA doesn't really matter as to what your future career may be.

A person who was going for their MFA straight out of school, now that I definitely could see feeling like you'd want to have a conversation. People who stay in academia without a break between the BA and more advanced degrees tend to have a different experience of life in general. I wouldn't say it would count against you, but for an MFA candidate, it's not a mark in your favor. It's quite common for students to take time in between the two. It may be different for an MD or eventual Dr in Engineering or the hard sciences, though, I'm sure.

As for why I want to go to grad school, I want to be the very best I can be at poetry. That's the simplest way I can put it.

My dream job would be to teach English and related topics at the collegiate level. However, I know that's a shit shoot. I know that you can't possibly hope to get a job at a university and make above the poverty line - that is, unless you are undeniably good. That is, that you are so good at writing that universities want you because it will add prestige to their insititions - that you are so good that they are courting you. Otherwise, from what I can tell, you're going to be an adjunct forever making less than 10k a year teaching at 3 universities. But if they want you, if they are jockeying for you, then - well, then, tenure, you know.

I think it's ridiculous to hope or plan for that happening for me. It's just such a low chance, for anybody. I know the young poet enrolled in an MFA program right now that I think is amazing and mind-blowing - his name is Danez Smith, and he's already been published in some of the most prestigious magazines out there. He's a Cave Canem fellow, which means that for a while a bunch of people gave him money just so he could write poetry and live. (That's, btw, another post-grad-school option, if you are undeniably good.) I like, fuckin, basically worship Danez Smith in a lot of ways. I just think he's brilliant.

I'm no Danez Smith.

An MFA could help me teach at the high school level if I wanted, but I'm not sure I'm interested in that. It could help me lead classes at artist communities in my part time, however, if I wanted to, which I haven't really thought about but is a possibility.

I want to be the best I can be, and I believe that being in the immersive environment of an MFA degree, with teachers who know way more than I do, I'll be able to get better way faster and broadly than I will on my own. I believe I don't know what I don't know, but hopefully my teachers will. That's the gist of it. I don't think it will necessarily help me get published speaking in terms of having those letters after my name, but I think it would help me get published in that it would help me become a better writer. But publishing is painful, an up and down rollercoaster. Sometimes it's really rewarding, like my prose piece I actually worshopped for a bit with the editor who took it, and that was really cool. But mostly it's agony, waiting, and then nothing, or a slight rush when the poem goes out. I don't know how many people read any magazine I've ever been published in - I don't know what my traffic stats are, so there's no real way to get a reward there besides just seeing it for myself.

Thank you. I am celebrating in the ways I can as well. :)