Molly Koeneman
Me, my dog Maggie, and Daddy at Thanksgiving, 2011.
I grew up in the town where my family has lived for generations; it’s one of those if-you-blink-you-miss-it towns in Kentucky. After earning an undergraduate degree in literature form Western Kentucky University, I moved to Chicago where I work as E-Marketing Specialist for Media Tec Publishing and teach creative writing camps at TT Patton. In my spare time, I enjoy coffee, movies, and writing thank you notes, short stories, and blogs alike.
I have had several short stories published. “The Age of Maturity” was published the summer of 2010 in Main Street Rag’s anthology Commutability, “Hand-Me-Down” last fall of 2011 in the Hardin County Review and in the SLCC Folio, as well as “Apron Strings” just this winter, 2012, in the first issue of the online magazine Niche.
The Longer Story
A professor from Western Kentucky University, my alma mater, asked graduates from the English department to write a short autobiography of what we’ve been up to since graduating. I made me pause and take the time to ask myself, “How did I get here?”
The story starts with an uncomfortable conversation with my daddy my sophomore year of college. It began with, “What can you do with an English degree?” I don’t like saying, “I don’t know.” I would rather lie. So even though I really didn’t know, I rattled off various occupations I could be interested in—paralegal, personal assistant, marketer, journalist. The conversation ended with me exclaiming that I was also going to get a business degree.
To complete a business degree, one had to have an internship. The semester before my senior year, I was freaking out, and I was applying to every internship the business school and the English department sent my way. One such application came from a small stationery store in a wealthy Chicago suburb. Theresa, owner of TT Patton, gave the application to her husband’s best friend who works for the University of Kentucky, and the application made the short, viral journey to my WKU inbox by some means or another.
In Barrington, I designed and started up a summer creative writing program for middle schoolers. Theresa and I became very close, and I visited her and her husband several time over the next year. She and her stationery store even hosted a book signing when my short story, “The Age of Maturity,” that was published in Dr. Bell’s and Dr. McCaffrey’s 2010 Commutability. After graduation, with no other job prospects, Theresa invited me back to run the summer writing camps. This second summer in the area I was determined to meet more people, so I took a sketching class at a local community college.
In class I met Tad, author of Last Contribution. He and I struck up a friendship. So when former colleges of his, Jerry and Stacy, needed a research temp, Tad gave them my information. The 20-hour-a-week job at Media Tec Publishing was just what I needed to forget my reservations about moving to Chicago permanently. I picked up shifts at Theresa’s store and started working for the event company, iWish, to supplement my income. Money was very tight for a few months, but when the position of E-Marketing Specialist opened up at Media Tec Publishing, I was right there, eager for the opportunity.
My story is unconventional and contains a bit more struggle than I’ve set to this page, and it would certainly be a great feat to recreate. From my six months of post-graduation, I can offer the world this advice:
- Do your best work at every job, even the unglamorous ones like my research job pushing around information in Excel, because you never know who is watching or who you’ll meet.
- Be versatile with your skills and experiences.
- Be grateful the the Godsends–the people, the opportunities, and the hard work–that find their way into your life.
- And always argue when someone condescendingly asks you what can be done with an English degree.
