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As I write these words, I’m actually in New York, not Chicago. I’m out visiting some friends from my undergraduate university (Michigan) who dispersed post-graduation and ended up pretty much all over the country. East Coast, West Coast, Southwest/Texas, Midwest…it’s amazing how that works. It’s kind of a diaspora, even if Ann Arbor was only our temporary home.

Thinking about this brings me to think about where I’ll be a year from now: dispersing again with the rest of the class, both geographically and otherwise. It’s crazy how fast one year rolls by and I’m sure this next one will be done in a flash. On the other end, I’ll have a book manuscript, some more tools for whatever dreams I pursue, and some decisions to make.

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Career-wise, getting an MFA in Poetry essentially signifies three interests pretty adamantly:

1. This person is interested in writing.
2. This person is interested in literature, especially poetry.
3. This person is potentially interested in joining the academy and teaching.

I don’t really see anything there that limits job potential. You have most of the same skills you came into the program with, plus some extra experience writing and thinking creatively, as well as speaking in front of people if you’re teaching. Plus you have whatever else you’ve been accomplishing with yourself while in the program, which in some cases is pretty significant career experience judging by the people who graduated in the years ahead of me.

All this means, I guess, that you aren’t just limited to publishing and teaching as I may have first thought when I came into the program. If you play your cards right, it should be pretty expansive.

The reason for this fast-forward is that this is our last post together on Marginalia. It’s sad, I know, but you’ll be in good hands with this guy. If you don’t want that guy and you still want me, you can find me blogging about mindfulness, meditation, philosophy, and how to be good at life in general at www.fusionmindfulness.com. Every once in a while I might write something on my personal blog, www.bryemye.com, but right now the only usefulness in that is being attached to my Twitter feed where I link to cool articles and yell out to the cold, empty universe about sports, the news, and life’s woes. Then I tweet happy, loving things at Fusion Mindfulness.

For today, goodbye. For tomorrow, good luck. And forever…