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Saturday, June 11, 2005

You should all be very proud of me

Friday night was graduation. The weather held out, Zach's speech was amazing, and both students and parents behaved themselves. No one died during the big "secret" traditional senior party, and life is good.

I went through a graduation of my own on Thursday, sort of a milestone in my life: I gave my writing the chance to be shown to the general public. I've been talking about the Mentor Series for weeks, and the day finally came when I needed to take my baby, my manuscript, and deliver it to the Loft office and send it off to the pile of dreamers like myself.

I know there's a continuum of expectation from writers in this contest. Some are expecting to get in, and just tossed whatever they felt like into an envelope and sent it off. Some are on the opposite end where they slaved and slaved and slaved to get every comma right, every word perfect, not a crinkle or bend in the paper. Some are reapplying after being a finalist last year, or after not being a finalist last year. Any way, there are a lot of people that apply and want to get in for a lot of different reasons.

For me, actually applying is truly more important to me than getting in. I would love to get in, and I would give it my all if I was...but the feeling of pride that I felt when I handed the secretary my submission and walked out was more than I've felt in a very, very long time. Probably since college. That feeling alone made all of the hours of work, all the self doubt, all of the tears, the food, the sleepless nights, completely worth it.

So...august 15 is the big day. I'll keep you posted.

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