Ramblin past the GRE

I don't know why I have the urge to ramble about the GRE, but I feel like I just need to get this story out of me and on here.  Last Friday, I gave in to my fear and took the GRE again - after a 12 year hiatus.  I don't even remember my scores from 1989; I just remember that I took it with a number 2 pencil in hand and filled in the dots...leaving streaks and remnants of pencil lead on my hands and across the page.  This time, I sat in a stark cubicle directing the mouse over my answers.  I still kept pencil in hand and used every inch of scratch paper given to me.  I guess that's just the type of writer I am:  no matter when or how things come to me, I do best when I have pen or pencil in hand and take it to paper.  I have to have the physical interaction before I start typing anything into some program or electronic media.

I finally made the decision that I want to pursue my MFA next year, but I haven't decided on whether to go low residency or full residency.  I'll leave that decision to another day (but I'll need to decide withint the next few months).  In looking at the schools that interested me, I saw that some on both paths required the GRE General Test and I just decided I needed to do it - get it out of the way sooner rather than later.  I spent the weeks leading up to it refreshing my vocabulary, writing notes on flash cards, brushing up on those high school math formulas, and writing a few essays based on the testing pool from the ETS site.  I think my preparations paid off.  At the end of the test, the screen displayed my estimated verbal and quantitative scores based on the old system (630 - 730 on verbal, 690 - 790 on quantitative).  They couldn't (or wouldn't) estimate the analytical scores, and that's okay.  I'll find out in November what I actually scored on the new scale.  Fingers crossed!

But now, I need to work on my Statement of Purpose for applications and all I can do is write poetry.  For some reason, the creative keeps flowing and I can't turn it off.  So, I'm going to ride this wave for the next few days and circle back to it.  Maybe this is a better time to edit my manuscript.  Now that I've got this little note out of my system, I can get back to writing.  Later!