The summer before I went off to college way back when, my father suggested two options. Go to a university (I had chosen Boston University)-- $100,000. Or, find a cabin in the woods and read the hundred greatest books ever written--$1,267. Beyond the cost difference, my father was skeptical about school learning, claiming he'd learned almost everything in life by living it and reading books. He had a point, because I spent a lot of my college years buried in books that I could have buried myself in on my own with a little bit of discipline. On the other hand, I was studying theater and half that education required being on stage and interacting with other actors. Monologues performed alone in my log cabin wouldn't have gotten me far. Not long into my acting career, I decided I wanted to be a writer (I know, two lucrative careers!). I thought to go back to school but then figured,
I don't need to go to school to write; I just need to write. And, I did well: I published a play, got a job at the NY Post and the SF Weekly, wrote an advice column for a big Canadian magazine; hell, I even have a Wikipedia entry that calls me an "American Journalist". Even with all that, I felt I could be a much better writer, and I wasn't able to do that myself. Heeding my father's advice, I bought up every book I could find about the craft of writing. The problem was, even with the best intentions, I never read past the first chapter, and my talent as a writer leveled out. One thing that life has taught me is that I need deadlines to do things (like become a better writer), and what better place to have deadlines then grad school. So I'm going to grad school (University of San Francisco), I'm hoping for the price, my writing, and this blog, becomes even more brilliant.
