For the first time in my life, I’m without obligations–no real debt, no spouse, no house payment. I have the same telephone customer service job that I’ve been working at since graduation. It pays pretty well, but I don’t think I can do it indefinitely. I don’t even think I can do it another six months, honestly. I’ve been doing it since I was twenty, and I’m just plain burned out. And, given the structure of the company, lateral movement isn’t an option.
I want to go back to school, or otherwise completely change my career path. This is more difficult than it sounds; my BA is in English, At one point, in some long-forgotten thread, I debated the idea of teaching or getting my MLS; I’ve since come to realize that I’d be a terribly impatient teacher, and a terribly broke librarian (though my idea of what that market entails could be incorrect, so let’s not take it off the table).
Ultimately, I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to keep on doing what I’m doing, but virtually all of my job experience is in this job. I don’t know how I’ll get letters of recommendation if I do go back to school, since I was only at my university for five semesters (yay AP credits!), and I doubt that any of the professors I had remember me. And what I really would love to go back to school for is either a degree in folklore, or a MFA in creative writing. Neither of those options, however, is particularly marketable, and either of them would leave me in debt. That doesn’t seem like the smartest combination ever. I don’t want to saddle myself with more debt only to find myself in the same situation I’m in now.
Since Dopers are usually a pretty realistic lot, and aren’t so caught up in my happiness that they’ll placate me, I’m asking for advice. What should I do? I can write, though I don’t have the sort of experience doing it that you can put on a resume. I like creating things, and, OP title aside, I’m open to options other than a master’s–trade school, certification, whatever. Standardized tests for admission to programs aren’t going to be a problem–I aced my GRE once, I can easily do it again–and I graduated magna cum laude, so my transcripts aren’t a problem. It’s just been seven years.
So, take a spin at my life!