Ruminations, continued.

XI

The year was intense.  It was a workload unlike anything I had ever experienced before.  And, to top it all off, I was no closer to having any idea what to do about the future than I had been when I had started.  If I had thought to gain some time to think about my decisions, I had been badly mistaken.  The workload left me with no opportunity to think about anything other than the workload itself. 

What little time I had to think about resolved itself into this:  I had one useless degree. I was about to have what was clearly a second useless degree.  Either I would have to admit I had wasted five years of my or I could try to go the distance and get the third degree, and maybe make some use out of it.  So I took a little time around the middle of that year and sent in an application to go into the PhD program. 

It was a long shot.  I was getting decent grades- low A's-  but this was the big leagues.  Decent would not cut it.  Just before summer I was informed that my application had been rejected.  Dejected, I decided to take my last course over the summer and finish the MA. I had no expectations about that course.  It was about Renaissance Epyllia, which I had never heard of before I took a course on it.  I hoped to get the minimum grade I needed for the degree and then I would go about doing... something about the future. 

I imagine by now you've worked out that that isn't quite what happened.