Last week stumbled on for an eternity. I had a client trying desperately to close a complex merger that dragged on for many months. We worked long hours to try and get it closed by last Friday. That didn’t happen. In fact, it did not close until Wednesday of this week, which is why I am finally posting this blog post now. I staggered through my door at 7 p.m., and before I could collapse on my couch in a blissfully comatose state (my preferred level of consciousness when I have billed 60 hours in one week), I glanced over at the mail, my eye drawn by a metallic pink envelope. Eh, a bag from ipsy. Whatever. Not worth the trek to the counter. My eyes scanned lower to the large envelope below the smaller metallic envelope. In a few quick steps, I moved to the bar where the mail sat and grabbed up the envelope.
It was from Fairleigh Dickinson University, one of the creative writing MFA programs to which I applied a month or so back. After taking a deep breath to quell the nervous flutter in my stomach, I tore the envelope open and read the word “Congratulations!” The exhaustion of the week evaporated instantly, my mind alive with the news that I will be winging off to London in January for my first MFA residency. I jumped around and danced with my dogs. I googled every scrap of information that I could about Wroxton Abbey, including a very nice virtual photo tour, something I had been afraid to do before the acceptance letter came. And the glow has lasted the whole week. I applied to a couple of other programs, but I had put off getting letters of recommendation, which I hate doing. I do not have an abundance of people who can recommend my creative writing. My old law and economics professors were exposed to plenty of writing, none of it particularly creative.
Apart from FDU’s gorgeous castle in England, I was also drawn to the fact that it does not require letters of recommendation. Everyone knows that MFA programs choose you based on your writing sample. Why bother with recommendations at all? So, although there are a couple of other schools out there who probably will reject me because they never receive these recommendations, I am happy that FDU has dispensed with the need. I applied for the provost scholarship earlier this week and mailed off the deposit check today. So, safely into my first choice and accepted on the strength of the first two chapters of COMPENDIUM, I am feeling pretty good this week. And the merger even closed to boot!
So, I suppose this gives me an additional topic to blog about. Reading, writing and making it through a low residency MFA program! I look forward to getting some new photos for my blog of the gorgeous castle in England and the lovely FDU campus in Madison, NJ!
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Alia Luria - BLOG 
Congratulations! I know the exact feeling you just wrote about, the nervous congestion if opening the letter; the buoyant joy of discovering your acceptance. I graduated from the FDU program, loved it, will never forget the Wroxton experience, the people, the mentors, the way they helped change my writing life and now the relationships with the FDU community. A beautiful thing. Happy for you. Welcome.
Thanks so much for the comment! I am glad to hear that you loved the program. That reassures me further that I made the right decision.