xvii.

This morning, dreaming of eating skittles and raisins while smiling and talking to someone, I awoke with my cheek in a puddle of drool. It was 11 o'clock.

Finding work sucks. I quit grad school. Now I'm looking for a job. Jobless, without a master's.

Three months ago I quit my job as a media planner, working on a major retail account, and decided to matriculate at a prestigious j-school.

I quickly found myself writing on deadline, getting story ideas and talking to people. It was all very exciting. I learned about landmark court cases for libel and privacy torts that constitute law and ethics in journalism. I learned how to edit and include numbers in my writing:

Of 1,500 graduates with college debt, 48 percent cite feelings of anxiety or sleeplessness as an effect, according to a 2006 AllianceBernstein L.P. press release.

The rate of return on a master's of journalism degree is not worth it, I concluded. In a beleaguered news industry and an unforgiving lifestyle, continuing could have been disastrous!

I chose family. Ironically, fate has left me vulnerable.