6. Career aspirations: In addition to being a writer, I see myself working in various areas of the printing industry—running a press, working in image assembly, and most preferably in typography—to gain a broad range of experience, and enjoy myself and make some money too. Someday I want to have my own publishing company, devoted to fiction, poetry, mythology—the stories that people live by. Eventually perhaps I will teach. 7. Write a paragraph stating why you have chosen this field and the reason you should be recipient of Craftsmen IAPHC Scholarship. One day I was standing in the bookstore where I work, and my friend came up to me and said, “Look what I found: a whole book about different printing and publishing programs all over the country.” I browsed through it, found MATC, realized it was right here in town, and read the descriptions of the program and the classes. It sounded intriguing. I discovered things I had not realized one could study in school, like “moods of type styles.” I pictured myself saying with pride, “Why yes, I do know how to program a step and repeat platemaker!” I became aware that a part of me had always wanted to learn a good, solid trade. It took me twenty-six years to reveal this to myself; growing up in my family it was always pretty much assumed that I would go to a four-year university and get some kind of liberal arts degree. I think it makes sense to support people in what they really want to do, not just in what they feel obligated to do. I am working hard on this, on my own initiative, and every little bit of support helps me to launch myself into independence, to transform myself into a vibrant, contributing member of society. 8. Describe a situation in which you experienced personal joy or satisfaction from something you accomplished. One day I said to that same friend, “You know, we should start a writing group.” So after a few weeks of hemming and hedging, we did. We named it “Oddletters,” after an imaginary publishing company I made up when I was a kid, and we put up flyers all over town. After a while, a few people came, and we all wrote together, talked about writing, planned a publication, and offered each other constructive criticism. We always started our meetings with a spontaneous writing exercise, often seeded by a random selection from a big box full of slips of paper with little ideas on them. One night we decided to write spontaneously about why we came to the group and what we got from it. One member told a story about her third grade teacher, Mrs. Wilson, who had been one of the few people ever to offer encouragement for her writing. Most of her family thought it was weird, most of her friends didn’t care, and I thought, “You know, we didn’t have to start this group, but we did, and I am really glad we happened to be here right when we all needed it.” I felt a warm rush of gratitude at being able to play a part in someone’s story.