So the other Melissa’s first semester of grad school was a mixed bag. Yes, she ended up with a 4.0 (she was the only one surprised by this), but her M.F.A. Preliminary Review was a nightmare. She hadn’t slept for 4 days and her lazyass advisors neglected to tell her (or the other first year students) that she had to give a presentation, so there was a moment of crickets before the great ‘spewing of the crap’ began. She says she doesn’t remember a word of what she said. She was hallucinating at that point. Basically, from there it devolved into a piling on to ‘teach her to respect the department, finally’ (yes, they actually said this). Mainly because their department is total crap. They refused to even look at two of her newest pieces, probably because they are spectacularly good and how could they continue to rip into her if she’s producing the best work this department has ever and will ever see in her first semester? It’s all very high school or possibly all very grad school and maybe that’s the same thing anyway.

As payback, she’s decided that next semester is the Vagina Semester. All pussy all the time. Her Final Review in May will be a wall of it. If they’re going to put her through hell, she’s decided to drag them right along with her. Besides, it’s sort of a feminist-in-art school rite of passage anyway, isn’t it?