Pursuing Education

I think the pursuit of education, in way, shape and form, is about the best thing you can do for yourself. This does not necessarily have to center around writing. I think any education is good. I think taking a T'ai Chi class at the local rec center has just as much merit as taking a course in poetry. It's an issue of expanding your mind, thinking new thoughts and meeting new people.

As a writer, I can think of at least three times that the pursuit of education influenced me. When I say influenced me, I mean that I was a different person, a different writer and I thought differently coming out of the experience than I was going in.

The first, I'd have to say were the last two years of my undergrad program at Metro State. I took literature classes. I was exposed to a world of literature that I had never known before. I also finished up a few Spanish classes. My minor was Spanish. I don't speak much Spanish these days and I'm afraid I forgot so much of it. What I learned from studying Spanish, most importantly, is how language works and how I applied what I learned to my native tongue of English.

The second educational experience, in retrospect, is probably the one that means the most. This second experience took place in 1998, the year after I graduated with a BA of English from Metro State. That year of 1998, I lived in three different cities, worked at summer camp and traveled overseas, twice. I also decided that year that I would read a novel a day all year. Ambitious goal. I did not read a novel a day, but I ended the year with about 190 books. Toward the end of the year, I was getting very weird. I was so weird that I was creeping myself out. For weeks the only person I talked to was the old Albanian woman outside the library who worked the hot dog cart. What I learned was literature, what I was made of, and texture of the air of all the places I traveled.

The third, of course, would be my experience at Goddard College and the MFA I earned there. This experience was not a great life revelation as much as it was the discipline to get things done. Sure, I went to a number of interesting workshops. I read some great books. I wrote some decent papers. And I met a wonderful community of people. But the experience itself, and perhaps it was my age at the time, was more of practical work habits. I will say this: I was a very different person at the end of grad school than I was when I began. It was well worth the time and the money.

The important thing about the pursuit of education, much like the prospecting of perspectives, is the ability to be open to an experience and then write about it. It's all about the process of growth and how it later relates to your life's work. Any education will expand thought and these thoughts will become the wellspring for your writing. These are the experiences that you can use for years.