eternalwhitenights

For all of us that have read (or vaguely remember) the beginning of this thread, do you ever wonder what happened to some of the users who randomly disappeared???
I thought of someone recently and messaged that user, but I’m sure there are many others. I hope everyone that left is okay.
All of you that aren’t being horrible people (which is almost all of you) thank you for being here. I appreciate you, you help keep this community together.

k guess my Friday's gonna consist of me hunching over my laptop refreshing my email every few seconds ?‍♀️
 

The time has come, the walrus said, for me to officially start shitting bricks.
Here we go.
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH 

Someone on Draft just got a call of acceptance from Michener. This is not a drill.

Since it's that time of year... [gets on soapbox again]
As y'all may know if you've read previous years' forums, I went through two application cycles before I entered an MFA program. My first cycle, I got into a couple programs, but I was unable to secure the funding I needed. Having to wait a year turned out to be really good for me. Looking back, I wasn't ready for grad school that first year (in terms of craft /and/ life circumstances). In the year between app cycles, I grew a lot as a person and a writer, in ways that wouldn't have been possible while in a grad program.
Of course, those gains didn't fall into my lap. I was very intentional about learning from my experience the first year. I would say my biggest tips are:
Apply to some less well-known programs, which will improve your chances way more than applying to many highly competitive programs. Many state schools have great funding and faculty despite not being household names! Keep looking for writing opportunities outside of the MFA world. Many of y'all are already doing the second one. @pattycat, your critique group is a great idea! I'd be more than happy to participate during the summer, when my workload is lighter. Long story short, I know it's rough right now. It's totally normal to feel discouraged and disappointed. But I hope you can also appreciate the work you did. Even if you don't end up applying again, your efforts planning, writing, and asking for LORs are still worth something! That's valuable experience you can use in many other contexts. You should be proud of yourself for that hard work, especially at a time when everything feels harder than ever. Not everyone would have done that

The time has come, the walrus said, for me to officially start shitting bricks.
Here we go.
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH 

The time has come, the walrus said, for me to officially start shitting bricks.
Here we go.
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH 

Nobody is censoring those thoughts; it's just that those thoughts are well known by virtually anyone who's spent any time at all thinking about getting an MFA seriously. Pointing out something that everyone knows isn't helpful. It's just harping on basic information that's being presented in the most negative way possible.
For example, yes it's true that Columbia does not offer full funding and that paying their full tuition is very expensive. Is it also true that only a fool would go to Columbia? No. That is an opinion, not a fact. It also assumes that everyone will have to pay full price, or that any specific individual could not afford to pay that very expensive cost.
I didn't apply to Columbia even though it's within walking distance from my home because of the costs. However, I did apply to NYU even though NYU similarly doesn't offer full funding. I decided that it was worth applying to NYU despite the low odds that I could afford to attend because there are not many schools available to me that offer full funding and I wanted to increase the possibility that I would be able to grad school next year.
Result? I have been accepted to NYU with full funding and a stipend.
It was very unlikely that this would happen, but it did.
If I listened to your "truths" I would have cost myself a tremendous opportunity.
Just because something is unlikely doesn't make it impossible. Unlikely things happen, and any honest assessment acknowledges that actual fact.
Negativity and honestly are not the same thing.
I will continue to encourage people to pursue their dreams and passions and I still give them the respect to assume they understand that doing so comes with the risk of disappointment.

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️

Awwww congratulations!!! So happy for you! ❤️

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️

Awwww congratulations!!! So happy for you! ❤️

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️

Look, marshall/frock, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to be coming from a place of pain in your posts. I'm not sure if you're bored, or you're burnt out, or someone told you once that your writing wasn't up to par, or what. I have no idea where your pain stems from, and I don't want to judge you, because I don't know your story. If you want to share anything, I'm happy to listen, if you're going through something, but regardless, just because you're disillusioned, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. 
I'm wondering if you're maybe someone that was told it wasn't okay to fail, and you just kind of go through life expecting bad sh*t to happen to you. (Not saying you are; it's just a hunch on my end.) I get it (if that is indeed what you're going through); you know, it took me a really, really long time to forgive myself for some choices I made in my past that went against my values, and sometimes I still struggle with bracing myself for things to just come collapsing down around me again, because hoping again after you've gone through some crap is really, really, really hard, and requires the most courageous thing anyone can do: being vulnerable again. That means you risk, well, risk, and you risk being hurt. If you harden and numb yourself, though, and retreat into your shell, ultimately, you deprive yourself of the depth of the human experience, because in avoiding the pain and numbing yourself, you also throttle your capacity to experience deep, freewheeling joy at its lifesource: your heart. I don't know about you, but living in perpetual gray and trudging through life seems pretty bleary to me.
Ultimately, too, to be even more cliche ?, I think so much of it really boils down to how it is all about perspective. The thing is, life, and people, ultimately, are fundamentally good. I know you've mentioned a couple of times giving "false promises" to people via encouragement; have you thought about reframing that perspective and viewing that expression of positivity from a place of anchoring yourself in a belief that good, that love, ultimately is the force that courses through the fabric of our world, and that it's okay to believe that, in the end, love and hope do triumph, and win? I would argue that asserting that truth doesn't warrant a notion of false promises; it simply means that despair, and hopelessness do not get the last say, and that even if you can't see it in the moment, even if it all looks bleak, lost, thrashed about and gray, hope always finds a place to sprout through.

For a more practical example, think of a rainbow after a storm, or how a forest fire can be regenerative. (In the case of the forest fire process, at first glance, it seems to destroy everything in its path, but what's going on underneath the surface, is that the heat of the fire is actually what activates the melting of the coating of the serotinously-covered seeds in the very plants the fire is burning down in its destruction, and that heat and that force catapults and scatters those seeds into the earth around it, so, in the end, the very element that seemed to destroy the vegetation and the life in the forest, actually, through and in its burning process, activated the release of new seeds and new life in its wake. Even in destruction, new life springs forth.)
I hope that however you have been hurt or are hurting heals, and that you don't stop believing in yourself. I'm just letting you know right now, that none of us on this board are going to treat this process as if everything is effed and there's no hope at all. We're a tenacious bunch, and if you'd like to join us, awesome. If not, I mean, there's no other way to say it, but you're truly just wasting your time on here, because we're not going to entertain or engage with your premise that all is effed when it comes to MFA processes.
I hope you choose to hope, and to have faith in yourself. Sometimes, it doesn't turn out how we expected, but how do you know something better isn't right around the corner, something that may have never been possible if your past plans had succeeded in the interim? 
I hope you have a nice day, marshall/frock, and I hope you don't give up. You're worth more than despair, and so are the rest of us on this forum as well.
Best of luck. ❤️

damn marshall really do be bored as heck huh. cant imagine spending so much time and effort trollin'. i barely have time to check this forum once or twice a day, and im a bored english major who has been at home for a year. also i love how the regulars IMMEDIATELY recognise the troll lol.
anyways, take this a breather. rejections are temporary, and it is okay to be sad about it for a bit. you will move on, and do greater things! congratulations to all accepted folks on here!! way to go!!!! and lots of luck to those with pending decisions and waitlists you're hoping to get accepted from!!!
love ❤️

Just found out I'm going to get a Truman Capote Literary Trust scholarship from the university of alabama!! ahhh!!!

Someone just posted on Draft that they got a waitlist notification from Cornell for poetry, just as a heads up to y'all (and KEEP YOUR HEADS UP, too!!!!!!). 

Someone just posted on Draft that they got a waitlist notification from Cornell for poetry, just as a heads up to y'all (and KEEP YOUR HEADS UP, too!!!!!!). 

Someone just posted on Draft that they got a waitlist notification from Cornell for poetry, just as a heads up to y'all (and KEEP YOUR HEADS UP, too!!!!!!). 

Someone just posted on Draft that they got a waitlist notification from Cornell for poetry, just as a heads up to y'all (and KEEP YOUR HEADS UP, too!!!!!!). 

Someone just posted on Draft that they got a waitlist notification from Cornell for poetry, just as a heads up to y'all (and KEEP YOUR HEADS UP, too!!!!!!).