Maddison's Musings

Hi friends. In case you haven't noticed, I've taken a break from blogging this year. Part of that is due to a lack of inspiration and motivation, while part of it is just due to the general chaos of the world right now. After seven years of writing a blog post at least once a month, I found myself constantly at a loss for new things to write each month. To be fully honest, I'm not sure if I have any inspiration or motivation back so much as I just wanted to sit down and write a little bit today.

For many people, this year has been difficult and filled with a lot of hardship, but I've actually had a pretty good time so far. Not like Generally, but personally, things have been good. I graduated college a whole year early (even though the "ceremony" was on zoom and I wish I didn't graduate early but shhh), I got a girlfriend, I hung out with my girlfriend, I got into grad school and then promptly dropped out of grad school, and my family got a dog. All-in-all, not too shabby. 

However, as summer comes to an end and my friends started heading back to school, I quickly realized that I have no idea what to do with my life going forward. Sure, I'd still like to edit books, but most of those jobs are at big publishing houses in New York City and considering I don't have the money to live there, I'm stuck in Texas for a while longer, where most of the editing jobs are more corporate based instead of creative based. So I don't know. I look at jobs every once in a while, but nothing really catches my interest. Sometimes I consider just working at Dunkin or Starbucks for a few months to earn some money (and get free pumpkin spice lattes), but then that wouldn't even give me the writing experience I need. I do want to thank my 14 year old self for starting this blog and updating it so frequently because I use that seven years of experience to my advantage. Work smarter, not harder, pals.

During my mid-summer oh-god-I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-my-life-the-world-is-in-shambles period, I ended up applying to grad school. Partly because I missed school, partly because I thought it would be interesting, and partly to distract myself after I sent my now-girlfriend a message telling her I liked her. Nothing like sending a message confessing your feelings and then panic applying to grad school in the middle of the night. Oh well. I mean it all worked out; I got in and even enrolled in classes before deciding at the beginning of the month that it wasn't something I really wanted to do (or could even afford oops). So now that grad school is out of the equation, I've tried to think of something to do to keep myself busy as the year ends, and I ended up finding some continuing education courses through my university. I signed up for a novel writing class about building characters that starts tonight, and I'm actually really excited for it. It allows me to continue learning, but with something I'm interested in, and it's only like six weeks long. We'll see how that plays out.

So while 2020 feels like the plot of a dystopian novel, I just wanted to write a little blog post today with some life updates. Considering it's the first thing I've written in months, I'm gonna take this as a good sign and hope that my motivation to write more comes back maybe. I guess we'll see. Until I write again (and god knows when that will be) I hope you're all staying safe and healthy. Wear a mask and make sure you're registered to vote if you live in America.

~Maddison