Grad School Diary: The MA

On Monday, a classmate asked if I were an MFA student. I get this a lot. I didn't tell her about how I applied to Brooklyn College's MFA program and got into the MA program instead. However, waiting for the train back to my missed stop on Tuesday, (I was reading on the train and missed my stop so I had to double back) I found myself thinking that it was incredible that I got into an MA program. I wouldn't have thought I stood a chance because I am better at creative writing than I am at research papers. It didn't take very long, after my enrollment, for the realization that I didn't enjoy writing research papers to find me. But I have gotten much better at writing papers. My discipline in doing so has immensely improved. I really enjoyed the last research paper I wrote on Alain LeRoy Locke's The New Negro . I felt very proud that I didn't force poetic language into a paper which did not want any——no drama. I stuck to the point——as best as I could——and