Miss Melville is GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL!

Yes, that's right-- I read the e-mail right around noon, yelped and called out, "Oh My God," and promptly found myself on the verge of tears. I could hardly believe it. I just had the telephone interview on Monday, and now...

I've been accepted as an MA candidate at Oxford-Brookes University in Oxford, England.

Me. Going to the UK as a Grad Student. I still can't believe it.



[WARNING: self-analysis of psyche impending]
I know that I'm a decent student and I'm pretty fond of my own turn of phrase, but I guess I never really thought that I would get in anywhere. I mean, my BA is from a tiny, no-name state school with no real claim to fame, and my grades never were PERFECT. They were decent, I've done some unusual stuff, and I interview pretty well, but none of that really compensated in my mind. I'm not the BEST student, I'm not the BRIGHTEST person on the planet, and I never really believed that I was good enough for this. How could I be? I'm just a girl from a podunk town in Michigan who kinda liked to read. Getting the rejection letter from St. Andrews was tough, but it only confirmed what I'd always secretly thought-- that I was pretending to be an adult and a good student, and my bluff had finally been called.
But now... now I get to go. I get to sit in lecture halls again and read challenging texts and speak my mind and be both right and wrong. Oh, god, how wonderful...


Now, to be honest, Oxford-Brookes was not my first choice. In fact, it's still not. If I were to be accepted to either Aberdeen or Edinburgh, I'd head there. Regardless, the best part is simply knowing that I'm not shit out of luck come the end of August, left to nothing better than sitting in my parents' basement, twiddling my thumbs and trying to repay my loans.

I'm still in shock, I think.