Vermont

Early this year I applied to the Vermont College MFA program in writing for children and was accepted. I could have started in July but deferred until January. I'd applied for a new job and wanted to wait and see what happened with that first. Plus I needed a break after taking a novel writing class at Iowa State last spring.

But now that the first day of my first residency is less than three months away and I've made my first payment, it's starting to seem real. And it's freaking me out just a bit.

Ordinarily I am hard to rattle.

Maybe it's the money. I have to take out student loans again. Plus I told my husband I'd keep working full-time until they were all paid off.

Maybe it's the time commitment. In all of Vermont's materials they say it takes 25 hours per week during the semester. The residencies don't exactly sound leisurely either. They sound jam-packed with interesting speakers and workshops.

Maybe it's that I'm really going to do it.