I’m almost done applying to the MFA programs I’ve chosen, and so the waiting game is about to begin. I am not sure how I’ll manage to wait, and wait, and wait…All through the balance of January, and February, and the first part of March. I think I’ll distract myself with a lot of reading. Maybe some writing, though I find I’ve lost whatever small amount of confidence in my abilities I had. I must’ve sent the confidence with all the application packets.

I made a binder for all my MFA application information — a place to put everything I printed from the internet, a place to track my progress on each application, a place for my excel spreadsheet with the deadlines and requirements for each school. My binder is fat. My binder is my favorite thing right now.

Here are a few of its contents. It represents more work than I’ve ever put into any one single thing. It is full of hope. Wish me luck.