I’m a small-town Mississippian who was once rejected from grad school in English. Not knowing what to do after all that studying and preparing to learn didn’t work out, I decided to do some learning of a different sort.
I now learn (mostly) by doing. I also read a lot of non-fiction. I don’t mean to discredit graduate programs (at least not openly and in writing, right?), but I find that learning by doing is just as fulfilling as learning in a classroom and often more useful. Do I still read “good literature”? Well, sure, but I no longer do so for someone else’s approval. I’ve graduated and don’t need that silly little Ph.D. hat to prove it.
