Adventures In Education: Part 2

Now that another 9 months have passed, it's time to update my blog. I keep waiting for the day when I come back and find someone else's collar on it, but so far the little beggar keeps hanging around. Hold fast, little buddy!

Well, I spent a fantastic year as a library aide/writing coach, raised some money for the school, met some amazing students, and hopefully helped a few of them improve their writing skills along the way. Unfortunately, Mr. Husband is in grad school and, for whatever reason, the state requires that teachers obtain graduate degrees to get to Rank 2 or 1 but does not offer any discounts to get those degrees. (It stuns me that many people believe that the school system pays the bill for grad school. No such luck, my friends!) I guess the massive salary they pay high school teachers in rural Kentucky is supposed to cover that. So... I started looking for other work and, long story short, I found it at a small liberal arts school as a development writer. Now I write thank you letters to donors and create appeals, etc. It's nice to be a 'professional' writer, and I do like getting to do it all day. I also love the school - it has a great mission and I am truly proud to be here.

I really feel like the last year has given me focus. I now have enough experience (not sure what criteria they hired me on - hopefully it was because I'm qualified and not some sort of "least annoying candidate" situation) to write for a living, even if it's not the most glamorous work in the world. And it opens up the possibility that I can go to grad school - nothing is really holding me back anymore, and I've found a program that would let me continue to work full-time if I can get in (i.e. get back into the habit of writing decent prose/poetry). Anyway, just an update on the home front. No promises on being a better blog poster, but for the 3 people that read this, you know me well enough to know that I will happily respond to any further questions! :)

Praise God for having a job!