Monday, April 30, 2012

that bitch April

So, April's been a real up and down month for me. For instance, I finally get my first piece accepted for publication since becoming an MFA student. It's a book review for a decent literary magazine with a strong online presence as well as a physical circulation of about 22,000. So, that was pretty good. Below is an example of my acceptance letter. Note: the letter shown below might be dramatized a little. Just a lil' bit...

But then, a little later in the month I find out I'm not getting the Graduate Assistantship for next semester that I sorely needed to help sort out my financial situation (and this despite having a really good interview).

So that sucked. It sucked particularly hard because I'm sure my resume wasn't really even looked at. I know this because I wasn't even emailed the bad news to the address indicated on my resume-- I had to contact them after not hearing. Also, when the email did finally come to tell me that I didn't get selected, it was suggested that I try to get more experience by working at place X, when I already have experience working at place X. Obviously they would've known that had they actually paid any attention to my resume. So that was frustrating. I mean, if you have your darlings already picked out, then fine, I could probably live with that. Just don't waste my time, you know? 

But then, some good news comes: I win 1st place in a literary award contest! It's given to me on April 27.

But, alas, alas! This joy is short lived. I get denied state residency based on some bullshit technicality, which means I'll have to continue paying out-of-state tuition for another year. 

That means I pay double. I could barely hack it this past year, so another year of this will be extremely trying. Sigh. 

April, in short, has been an absolute bitch.