Bringing My Purse to Graduation

I had a big day yesterday! And so did my embarrassingly gigantic purse, which I brought with me for some reason.

I gradated with my M.A. in English from Salem State University AND I had my first painting accepted for publication at an online literary magazine. I got the alert from Submittable that my painting was accepted minutes before I walked across the stage to get my diploma (or diploma-holder, as the case always is) and it was such a nice reminder that just because this particular educational experience is closing, I’m not done experimenting and trying new things. It always made me feel like an artist, which is certainly a new feeling for me. Anyway, I’m plugging away on my fiction-writing in between my frenetic painting and poem-ing and I’m entering contests and gearing up to spend the summer wrapping up my novel. So there’s plenty of work to distract me from how desperately sad to be leaving school.