Stonecoast Graduation and Washington DC Trip

On Saturday, January 17, 2015, I graduated with my Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. That was three days ago, and it's still bittersweet. I wanted to reminisce, to reflect on my time at Stonecoast. To do that, I needed to go back to the beginning, to a time when I wasn't the confident writer...

I started writing my novel in 2009. While each new year brought the same resolution—finish your novel!—I still felt as though something was missing.

I found that something at Stonecoast.

In December 2012, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin—Parkside with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and in January 2013, I began my journey at the University of Southern Maine’sStonecoast program. Before I graduated from UW-Parkside and before I applied at Stonecoast, I searched high and low for the perfect graduate school. I knew it existed somewhere. I just had to find it. And I refused to settle.

I was looking for a school that would let me work one on one with my professors, a school that would let me focus on my writing rather than taking more courses that taught me how to write. After four years of undergraduate English courses, I was ready to step out of the classroom and into the writing world. I had also always wanted to study abroad, something that so few schools offered. But most importantly, I wanted to work with professors who were writers I grew up reading (or, at the very least, had heard of). I wanted to work with writers who were currently in the industry, who were prolific in their own way. I wanted to work with writers who truly knew the young adult market and who also wrote their fair share of vampire novels.

It’s fair to say my Buffy-obsessed self wanted to work with Joss Whedon.

In my search, I only found two schools in all of the US that fit my wish list: University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania. These were the only two universities that had programs that would fit my popular fiction aspirations. This realization left me heartbroken.

I was very close with my English professors at UW-Parkside, and that friendship led to many long discussions on the graduate school life. I knew of the competitiveness and the low acceptance rate. I also knew of the unlikeness that I’d be accepted, but I applied anyway.

During August 2012, I worked one on one with Nick Tryling, an English professor at UW-Parkside. She helped me as I prepared my entrance essays and submission piece. At UW-Parkside, the month of August is the only month professors can be truly off during the summer months, unless a professor opted out of teaching summer courses between May and July. Nick always taught during her summer and winter breaks. Spending her one free month with me meant more than she’ll ever know. Her dedication to her students is unsurpassed. I often wonder if my original essay or self-revised version of my submission piece would have been accepted.

Nick and I worked tirelessly on my graduate school application packet, and after only a few short weeks, I submitted it with my fingers crossed and high hopes. Robin Talbot, the program’s Associate Director, called me less than a week later. When she called, I was in the library at UW-Parkside working on my final paper for an English course. I saw the number light up on my phone, but I ignored the call. My study group and I had booked a study room, so we were in an enclosed space, where I could have taken the call, but my creative juices were flowing, and I hadn’t recognized the number. As soon as it stopped ringing, I immediately thought of my application to Stonecoast.

Could that be them? Could they be calling me? But why would they call? I could only hope it was for one of three things: 1) My application was missing documents. I knew this was unlikely. I had triple checked that I sent everything they required. I was diligent. That couldn’t be it. 2) They had rejected my application. I was an amateur, so I didn’t know. Did they call to let someone know they didn’t get in? That would be just plain mean, and I found it highly unlikely that they would do such a thing. Now, I hadn’t exactly submitted all the materials for my application package to Seton Hill. I did the pre-application steps, but at this time, I didn’t even consider it could’ve been them calling. Somehow, I knew it was Stonecoast. 3) I was accepted. I begged, I prayed it was the latter.

My phone beeped, signaling a voice mail alert.

I screamed, covering my mouth with my hands, and visibly shaking. My study group stared. I explained the situation, and they jumped with joy. They too believed it was the latter. I immediately checked the voicemail.

Robin told me she’d like to discuss my application and to call her at my next available opportunity. I replayed her message over and over again. How did she sound? Was her tone happy? Sad? Does this sound like someone calling to tell me I had forgotten to send in some essay? Or did it sound like she was going to accept me? I over-analyzed every word.

The world went silent as I dialed her number on my phone, but the beeps were louder than usual, and they echoed in my mind. I had never felt so sick, so anxious. I honestly wasn’t sure if my heart could take it.

Robin answered immediately, and I introduced myself. She congratulated me on being accepted into the program and asked if I had any questions. I could only think of one.

Are you calling the right person? She laughed. It was a genuine laugh. Deep down, I was sure she had been asked that before, because the question came so naturally from my lips. I truly thought she might have called the wrong Danielle Rose. She shared that another student had told her he was going to celebrate with backflips after they hung up the phone. I wasn’t quite that athletic. She explained the process and asked if I needed time to consider the acceptance. I told her no. I knew I belonged at Stonecoast. After we hung up the phone, I cried. It wasn’t a full on cry. It was just enough to let it out. I released the anxiety, the uncertainty. There’s something about an acceptance call that tells you you’re on the right path. Relief washed over me.

At this point, I was still a student at UW-Parkside, and I was late for a meeting. I was the assistant editor of Straylight Magazine, and the editor and I were meeting with our printers to finalize layout issues. My phone lit up again. It was Dean, a UW-Parkside English professor and editor of Straylight. He asked if I was still able to make the meeting. I apologized for my tardiness and told him I was on my way.

While walking to the meeting’s location, I called my mother. She was at work when I gave her the news, and I could hear her joy through the phone. She told me she knew I could do it, that she knew I’d get in. She said I would achieve anything I set my sights on. She told her co-workers of my acceptance, and I could hear them in the background, cheering me on.

I hung up the phone as I entered the room for my meeting. Dean; Maria, Straylight’s layout lead; and two employees of the printing company stopped their discussion as I walked in. I apologized for being late, and I told them I had an announcement to make. I couldn’t help myself. I needed to say it. It was the first time I said it aloud to someone other than my mother, and it felt good.

I have just been accepted into University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Master of Fine Arts program! I start in January!

They congratulated me. Maria hugged me, and Dean stood and shook my hand. I’ll never forget that moment. By this time, I had taken two courses (one being my senior thesis) with Dean, and I had worked with him at Straylight for 3 semesters. He believed in my efforts even when I didn’t, and when I was considering applying for graduate school, he was the one who sat me down and explained that getting my MFA would be the best decision I’d ever make.

And he was right.

Stonecoast is the best decision I’ve ever made.

I walked through the doors as a writer who lacked confidence, overwhelmed with uncertainty, but the feeling left almost immediately. I quickly bonded with my classmates, and graduating students eagerly offered words of wisdom. While a student at Stonecoast, I worked on several short fiction pieces, but I’m most proud of the progress I’ve made on Blood Lust. I slowly worked on the novel with three mentors during my first, second, and fourth semesters at Stonecoast. Nancy Holder, David Anthony Durham, and Theodora Goss helped mold Blood Lust into a thesis I’m proud to read publicly during my final residency. The majority of my changes were plot and character overhauls. I found that my original draft had an unrealistic protagonist. She was an invincible hybrid. Without realizing it, I created a character with so few flaws a reader couldn’t relate, and in young adult literature, having a relatable protagonist is crucial.

During my third semester, I worked with Nancy on my academic paper, The Model Vampire: Folkloric, Classic, and Modern. The paper takes an in-depth look at the vampire trope and its growth in literature from folkloric to classic to modern models.  The paper addresses how both the vampire and society were affected during the times in which the vampire figure transitioned into its next phase.  In closure, I suggested that a new model is slowly forming, the realistic vampire, the creature seen in novels such as Heather Brewer’s The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. Her novels showcase a vampire with more realistic qualities, including acne, teen growth spurts, and being a victim of bullying. In Blood Lust, I find myself using all three forms of the vampire trope, meshing them together into my different vampire races.

I chose Stonecoast, because it fit all of my requirements, but I don’t see my time there as me choosing Stonecoast. I think Stonecoast chose me. We fit together perfectly, Stonecoast and me—just as Stonecoast fits together with all the other Stonecoasters. It’s a connection not everyone finds, and I’m blessed to have experienced it.

Life after Stonecoast sounds hard. Not because I think I can’t do it. I know I can. Life after Stonecoast will be difficult, because I won’t be spending two weeks every January and July with my friends. I will no longer have the opportunity to warn my mentor at the beginning of a new semester that I overshare and over inform (and that they should be prepared for random Facebook messages and posts).

But the beauty of the difficult task, this life after Stonecoast, is that I am prepared for it. It’s going to be hard, because I’m going to let it—emotionally. I’m going to let myself be sad. I’m going to let myself cry. Because I know how much Stonecoast means to me, and it means enough to be worth the tears. But I will push on. Each and every time I think I’m falling into an emotional slope, I’ll hear my graduate school mentors, Nancy Holder, David Anthony Durham, and Theodora Goss, tell me to push onward! And I will.

Life after Stonecoast will come with agent queries, editor meetings, and publisher contracts. It’ll show me deadlines I’ll be ready for and others I think I’ll never make. I plan to publish Blood Lust, and the final novels in the series. I plan to write more, read more, travel more. I hope to one day touch someone’s life with my writing. I hope to spark their imagination just as other writers have sparked mine. I dream of one day becoming a teacher to those who love writing and reading just much as I do—even if that means reminding them of their talent just as I once needed. After all, I believe that a writer’s love for creation is only surpassed by their love of having the ability to dramatically affect the lives of others.

My graduation program.

The front cover of my graduation program.

Here it is! I officially received my MFA in creative writing.

Naturally, I had to take a few pictures by the many
fireplaces at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport, ME.

The post-graduation selfie with my fiancé.

After our graduation ceremony, administration members host a graduation
party for all students, graduates, and friends and family members.

After leaving my graduation residency, my fiancé and I drove to Washington DC, where we spent the day sightseeing before driving home. I suppose I needed time to relax, reflect. It was a time for acceptance. This would be the last time I was on the east coast as a student at Stonecoast. Sure, I would visit again. But no matter how many times I told myself that, it wasn't the same...

This was our first selfie of the day.
We chose to walk to the sights in DC,
which I highly recommend if you've never been!

The view from our hotel room was of the US Department of
Education,which I found to be ironic since I work in academia.

We first visited the US Capitol building. It isn't tourist season until March 1st,
so they they were working on it. Still breathtakingly beautiful.

Here's another shot of the Capitol building. The building itself is massive.

Next, we visited the Library of Congress, which was also massive.

In true tourist fashion, we took a selfie
outside of the Library of Congress.

On the way to our next stop, I couldn't help but
snap this picture of the trees. Beautiful!

We took a selfie outside of the Supreme Court.
There aren't any tourists on the stairs,
because there were armed guards patrolling.
In all honesty, we weren't sure if we were allowed on the steps!

On our way to the White House, we couldn't help but laugh at this.
These men were play street hockey on the street in front of the White House.
The police and secret service members making their rounds didn't seem bothered.
That led us to believe these players were undercover secret service members. Ha!

The White House! It's much smaller than we were expecting.
The grounds look NOTHING like what's shown on TV, by the way. :(

Selfie outside of the White House.

Selfie with a secret service officer.
He sat in his vehicle watching me.

On our way to see the next monument,
we were visited by hungry birds. There were
dozens more not seen in this image.

This is the George Washington Monument.