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Mind the Gap

April 26, 2014/in Blog / Caitlin Bagwell

Hello, fellow scribblers!

We need to talk about what you are going to do next. I, myself, am nearing the end of my MFA experience and have to make certain life decisions. Like what to do with a time in my life called Post MFA. I believe this is something like menopause; a state that will last until I die.

http://i.imgur.com/V1c0X7O.gif

It is time to embrace this change of life.

It is time to face the fact that while I don’t actually feel like a writer, I will soon have a certificate that says that otherwise.

It is also time to tell the government that the joke is one them: I won’t be repaying these loans anytime soon!

http://37.media.tumblr.com/35ab10590ee91c35fa606a1791069402/tumblr_mldfv2jD5G1rvnnvyo8_250.gif

As a writer, this is a weird time.

There is a lot of PRESSURE to do two things:

PUBLISH,

and

PUBLISH.

You could say that I am starting to feel the pressure.

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/1065426/ace-ventura-half-time-o.gif

Perhaps I am making things too hard.

Perhaps what I need to do is listen to what Ira Glass has to say about this time in my life: The Gap

http://www-deadline-com.vimg.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ira_l-300×225.jpg

Some gems from Ira Glass not found in the video:

“If you are not in a situation where you are failing all the time, then you are not in a situation where you can be super lucky.”

“Learn to abandon the crap.”

“You will be fierce, you will be a warrior!”

“You will not get published, get over it. That is not why you are doing this.”

http://reactiongifs.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/chloe-moretz-confused-gif.gif

So, what am I supposed to do?

I think what Ira Glass wants us to think about the post MFA not as a curse given to me by my mother, but as just a beginning to getting down to some serious business.

Well, Ira Glass, I’m tired.

Tired of slogging through a novel that is not working at the moment.

Tired of making sure I have “met the requirements for graduation.”

When does it get better?

http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lknaxnGr901qbpemeo1_r1_500.gif

Where do you find the strength to keep “being in a situation where I am failing all the time so that I am in a situation of being super lucky?”

J.K Rowling said in her speech to Harvard Grads in 2008 that if she hadn’t failed so miserably at life after college she could not have stripped away everything that didn’t matter and just do the one thing she knew how to do: write.

What the Post MFA really is, is a time to fail.

What I need to learn is that I need to be OK with failure because I am not doing this to get published, I am doing this because I love this.

GAWD!!!

How cheesy is that?

When I think about it, J.K. Rowling and Ira Glass are right: failure is a good thing because it sets you free from the pressures that you put on yourself, like publishing right after your MFA.

I’ve learned about 10,000 new things in my MFA, and I should use the time after my MFA to try them all.

And keep trying

And quit worrying about publishing

It will happen

It happened for those two, why not me?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_r3FqODXWPAA/S_czV_XULiI/AAAAAAAAAEg/1rkYqVlQf9U/s1600/2921560757_06406e5bf9-450×361.jpg

 

 

Caitlin Bagwell, author photo

Caitlin was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She still lives there, and this makes her a rare unicorn in a sea of transplanted twenty-somethings who came to be artists and drink cheap beer. Also, she is now in her 30s and has moved on to Bourbon. She is a current MFA candidate in fiction at Antioch University LA. She has been published here and there with the last one being in Chiasmus Press’ Stories from the Edge: A Northwest Anthology.

https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/index.jpg 201 250 Caitlin Bagwell https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Caitlin Bagwell2014-04-26 18:29:002022-02-10 11:54:16Mind the Gap

Friday Lunch Archive

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Midnight Snack

A destination for all your late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

QVC-land

May 6, 2022/in A Transfer, Midnight Snack / D. E. Hardy
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Diana-Hardy_QVC_Feature_Photo.png 533 800 D. E. Hardy https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png D. E. Hardy2022-05-06 23:45:322022-05-06 23:45:32QVC-land

Escape Artists at the End of the World

April 29, 2022/in A Transfer, Midnight Snack / Lisa Levy
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/waldemar-brandt-eIOPDU3Fkwk-unsplash-scaled-1.jpg 1707 2560 Lisa Levy https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Lisa Levy2022-04-29 23:49:582022-06-13 18:34:12Escape Artists at the End of the World

The House in the Middle

April 15, 2022/in A Transfer, Midnight Snack / Megan Vasquez
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/alec-douglas-iuC9fvq63J8-unsplash-scaled-1.jpg 2560 1707 Megan Vasquez https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Megan Vasquez2022-04-15 23:45:322022-04-15 23:45:32The House in the Middle

More coming soon!

Amuse-Bouche

Little bites every Monday to whet your appetite!

Today’s plate:

Eggs, No Basket

June 27, 2022/in A Transfer, Amuse-Bouche, CNF / Kelsi Long
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/raiyan-zach-jDkrpWtSkb4-unsplash-scaled-1.jpg 2560 1440 Kelsi Long https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Kelsi Long2022-06-27 11:55:552022-06-27 11:55:55Eggs, No Basket

The Revolution Began at Book Club

June 20, 2022/in A Transfer, Amuse-Bouche, Fiction / Sari Fordham
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/alexis-brown-omeaHbEFlN4-unsplash-scaled-1.jpg 1707 2560 Sari Fordham https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Sari Fordham2022-06-20 11:55:162022-06-20 11:55:16The Revolution Began at Book Club

A Letter to the Dead Grandmothers That Raised Us

June 13, 2022/in A Transfer, Amuse-Bouche, Poetry / Levi J. Mericle
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/khamkeo-vilaysing-AMQEB4-uG9k-unsplash-scaled-1.jpg 1829 2560 Levi J. Mericle https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Levi J. Mericle2022-06-13 11:55:132022-06-13 11:55:13A Letter to the Dead Grandmothers That Raised Us

More Amuse-Bouche »

School Lunch

An occasional Wednesday series dishing up today’s best youth writers.

Today’s slice:

I’ve Stayed in the Front Yard

May 12, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Brendan Nurczyk
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/SL-Insta-Brendan-Nurczyk-2.png 1500 1500 Brendan Nurczyk https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Brendan Nurczyk2021-05-12 10:18:392022-02-01 13:24:05I’ve Stayed in the Front Yard

A Communal Announcement

April 28, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Isabella Dail
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/SL-FB-Isabella-Dail.png 788 940 Isabella Dail https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Isabella Dail2021-04-28 11:34:132021-04-28 11:34:13A Communal Announcement

Seventeen

April 14, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Abigail E. Calimaran
Read more
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/SL-Insta-Abigail-E.-Calimaran.png 1080 1080 Abigail E. Calimaran https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Abigail E. Calimaran2021-04-14 11:22:062021-04-14 11:22:06Seventeen

More School Lunch »

Word From the Editor

The variety in this issue speaks not only to the eclectic world we inhabit but to the power of the human spirit. We live in an uncertain world. In the U.S., we’re seeing mass shootings daily. Across the world, we’re still very much in a pandemic, some being trapped in their homes for weeks on end, others struggling to stay alive in hospitals. War continues to wage in Ukraine. Iran and North Korea are working diligently to make nuclear weapons. The list goes on. Still, we have artists who are willing and able to be vulnerable with one another, to share stories and art to help us try and make sense of our world.

More from the current editor »
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