Here’s a question someone just asked me: “I just don’t know what to do when I get some of these crazy requests. Am I allowed to say no to people if their request is impossible?”

YES!

I cannot stress this enough. A big part of the problem in my day-to-day involves people who believe that anything is possible if they make the same request in various ways. (sometimes using foceful voices, sometimes trying to butter you up, sometimes name dropping). Well, guess what? Some requests are impossible. Sometimes no is the only answer.

Man, I’m really quite bad at posting on a regular schedule. How am I ever going to become the widely-read internet celebrity of my dreams if no one ever knows when I’ll be posting the latest drivel?

Maybe after we move to Vermont and have no friends I’ll have nothing to preoccupy me and I’ll spend all my time writing entries for the ol’ Nerd Hut.

That’s right, I said after we move to Vermont.

The decision’s been made.

We are moving to Vermont.

We. Are moving. To Vermont.

It’s terribly exciting and terribly scary and ohmygodhowarewegoingtoprepareandsellthehousebyaugust????

But, mostly, it’s pretty damn cool.

So, after yesterday’s cryptic comments about life decisions, I suppose I should offer some kind of explanation.

It goes a little something like this:

I  want a career change. Emily is ready to be done with Baltimore. Add those together and you get a pretty good idea on why I took the GRE in December and applied to grad schools in February.

I didn’t think I’d get in. My GREs were not too shabby, but my undergrad GPA was a travesty. A mediocre travesty. My academic performance was traviocre. So, I thought I’d get rejection letters.

And I did. I got one rejection letter from Ball State University in Muncie Indiana.

But then, just days apart, I got three acceptance letters. I have the opportunity to earn a Master’s in Historic Preservation from either Goucher College or the University of Vermont. Or, I could take a slightly different course and get a Master’s in Public History with a certificate in Cultural Resource Management from West Virginia University.

Holy. Crap.

I can’t believe I got accepted anywhere. I’m really not trying to be pessimistic, I am really not looking for validation, but I honest to God thought I was applying for the same reasons the geek asks the homecoming queen out. Because they’re sure to say know, but rejection is better than never knowing.

But they didn’t say no. They said yes.

So I decided that I’d do it. I am going to go to grad school. I don’t know where yet, although I am leaning in one particular direction. Each has pros and cons.

It’s crazy to think of leaving this job that is comfortable yet which I hate. It’s crazy to think of (possibly) leaving the only state I’ve ever lived in. It’s crazy to think of making no money at all. (Or, if I want digital cable and the occaisional DVD of getting a part-time job to find my nerdosity). It’s scary and exciting and then scary all over again for different reasons.

But it feels like I’m finally doing something.

It’s better to try something and fail than to be left wondering “if”.

Next week I’m letting the 3 schools woo me. Monday/Tuesday I’ll be in Vermont, Wednesday is a lunch meeting with the head of the Goucher program, and Friday I drive out to Morgantown to meet with the professor who would be my advisor at WVU.

I plan on trying to take pics as I travel for, you know, posterity or something.

Holy crap. I’m gonna go to grad school.