EMBASSY ROW!
Talked to the head of my department today about living abroad for a while instead of going to grad school immediately. One thing he told me that I certainly hadn't been thinking about initially is that one doesn't need a whole lot of money to get by, that it's just getting there. But of course! I mean, isn't this why everybody in every Baldwin novel lives some kind of scraped-by life in Paris cafes and letters home? I think, yes, it is. It's a nice thought to have in the back of my head, maybe one to revisit whenever I need something shiny to hold onto.
It was a good talk. It reminded me that my writing is the primary thing, rather than all of the extracurriculars that I'm constantly working on. I'm very relieved to be able to think about things in those terms, especially because I've had extracurriculars hanging over my head for a while, and I'm starting to get fed up with it. Especially because it's impossible to constantly fascillitate and write for yourself. Of course, I think that a lot of the things I've been helping out with help to create a writing community, and this is itself really good for all of us. But so many e-mails! Sometimes I wither at the thought of having to keep up with all of this correspondence. No wonder it takes me months to get a single letter in the mail!
