Taking a break.
Dear all,
I’m sad to have to announce that, basically, I have a had a really bad week this week: and it’s only Tuesday! I’ve experienced a series of personal setbacks and disappointments, including the fact that I didn’t receive any of the limited funding available for my PhD course. This (and other upsetting Uni-related issues) means I may have to rethink the whole PhD route. I am battling with a strange recurring depression which makes me a tad irrational, and this has got me into more than a little trouble recently. I am also moving house this weekend, which promises to be stressful and time consuming!
Basically, it seems a good idea to take some time off from, well, everything. My students are coming up to their Easter holidays so I won’t be teaching… I also need to get away from University and that whole tangle of issues. I have been trying to carry on as normal but the thought of a sunny ‘Things I Love Thursday’ post this week is a bit too much. So I’ll be taking a bit of a hiatus from the blog, just for a week or two until I sort my head out. I’ll still be posting the Featured Poet posts and hopefully a little bit extra here and there, and I will be back in due course. Apologies all, and watch this space!
Sending creative thoughts your way –
Claire.
Tags: personal
March 31st, 2009 at 2:49 pm
<3
March 31st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Hey Claire - sad to hear it. Damn this life of a writer eh! So many ups and downs - and then real life to deal with on top of that!
My only advice for the PhD route is not to let the first attempt put you off. I applied to Glasgow UNI to do my Masters in CW in 2007 - got rejected - was absolutely fecking gutted. Applied about two months later to Newc UNI, got accepted and it has turned out to be such a better move for me. Also in the process of applying for PhD here, been told there’s limited funding from the AHRC - even if my proposal gets accepted I might not get funding - I know, it totally sucks. But, hey, if it doesn’t happen this year - what’s a year right - time to work on more material - more publications.
Good luck for the move - are you based in Edinburgh, if so, damn I’m jealous of ya woman.
Mandy
; ) x
March 31st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Take all the time you want, Claire. Hope things improve soon and you manage to sort some things out. Stepping away from the internet is essential every now and then to maintain sanity, especially when you have real life stuff going on.
Good luck with everything. I’m sure all your readers are thinking of you and will look forward to having you back!
March 31st, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Hi Claire,
Sorry to hear things aren’t going so well - fingers crossed that it all gets sorted out swiftly!
March 31st, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Yes, hope things sort themselves out soon. All the best from me.
March 31st, 2009 at 6:00 pm
sorry things aren’t going well, taking time out seems liek a good solution, hope things improve soon
March 31st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Hi Claire
“C’est la vie”: that’s what we French could say. This means roughly life is full of ups and downs and it’s often difficult to act on it.
But you are lucky because you are young. This doesn’t mean youth is good or not by itself, but when you are young you have a capital and this is … future… when old or so there are only memories left.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Sorry about the PhD, Claire
You’ll bounce back
Good luck with the house move :)
March 31st, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Sorry to hear things aren’t going so well. Hope the future brings more fortune.
‘Time will pass, things will get better…’
March 31st, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Take the time Claire. The house move may help. It seemed to me that physical activity helped me get over periods when I was down.
Best wishes
April 1st, 2009 at 4:18 am
Hope everything works out for you :)
April 1st, 2009 at 9:33 am
time’s like these i say to myself it’s all part of life’s rich tapestry. things pass, sometimes like a virus, but they pass!
April 1st, 2009 at 10:26 am
POOP. I feel ya. Hope you feel better soon and get things sorted with the evil establishment! I owe the state about 23 grand because of college still so …. yeah, sucks.
-H.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:37 am
You’ve been doing so much…I’m not surprised you’re a bit worn out! A break and a chance to think are probably a good idea and after the house-move you may find your strengths return (and then some!).
Lots of love. Come walk on the Angus beaches….works for me!
R
x
April 1st, 2009 at 9:18 pm
So sorry Clair to hear this.
Only a poem will do?
Acquainted with the Night
by: Robert Frost
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain — and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
O luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
Keep ya chin up lady and don’t let the Bastards grind ya down!
Roger x.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Take it from a guy whose made a habit of burning out every seven or eight years you need to know when to stop. The world will go on without you. It may not be quite so colourful but it will go on.
When you do come back you may want to think about delegating a bit more. When my wife ran her literary magazine she roped in a lot of her friends as ‘editors’ and although not a perfect solution it did ensure the magazine’s survival for a lot longer than if she’d tried to do it all on her own.
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
hey, claire –
i’ve been there. i gave up the ph.d. route for seven years after i also hit a bump in funding. eventually i went back and finished up. but it was a long and in many ways pointless detour i took. the ph.d. didn’t make me smarter or a better teacher. it gave me the credentials i needed, though, to build a career — to escape academic peonage. don’t quit now. there’s a way around whatever difficulties have arisen. step back. take a deep breath. then go get ‘em.
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Hi Claire,
Sorry to hear that you’re having a bad time of it, totally understand how frustrating the whole funding thing is, and if you’re not CW Phd material I don’t know who is! Hope you’re taking some time out to relax and enjoy the Edinburgh sunshine. *love* One Night Stanzas, I need to stop lurking and start commenting more! Here’s poem of springtime and hopefulness for you:
Begin Again / Brendan Kennelly
Begin again to the summoning birds
to the sight of light at the window,
begin to the roar of summoning traffic
all along Pembroke Road.
Every beginning is a promise
born in light and dying in dark determination
and exaltation of springtime
flowering the way to work.
Begin to the pageant of queuing girls
the arrogant loneliness of swans in the canal
bridges linking the past and the future
old friends passing though with us still.
Begin to the loneliness that cannot end
since it perhaps is what makes us begin,
begin to wonder at unknown faces,
at crying birds in the sudden rain
at branches stark in the willing sunlight
at seagulls foraging for bread
at couples sharing a sunny secret
alone together while making good.
Though we live in a world that dreams of ending
that always seems about to give in
something that will not acknowledge conclusion
insists that we forever begin.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:48 am
Sorry to hear things aren’t going too well on your end. I hope things get sorted out soon.
Much love, Claire!
April 14th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Hope things are looking brighter for you now Claire. Lots of love xx
April 16th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
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