Maximum Timeframe Appeal

This is the appeal I sent to the financial aid office at my community college. I must be re-careering and have a registered degree goal to qualify for financial aid:

I obtained a Bachelors Degree in Art when I was 22, worked in the field for a few years, and did not enjoy the profession. In the eleven years since I have worked my way up the career ladder as an executive in Prestige Cosmetics, and then back down again. A few years in I became ill with a serious non-terminal illness. The high stress and physically demanding nature of my job caused me to climb right down that ladder I had worked so hard to ascend. I assumed a position as a retail Makeup Artist, but this too is quite physically challenging, and I can only work very part-time. After years of hard work my illness is managed and I am at a place in my life where I need to explore how I am going to define myself professionally, and support myself financially.

That intention brought me to your Career Center and led me to utilize your DISCOVER workshop. As I combed through the litany of careers that are suitable for my talents, capabilities and values, I was reminded that all I have ever been passionate about is writing and reading. Yet I was not mature or dedicated enough right out of high-school to pursue anything so challenging, so intense, as the study of the classics of literature. I researched a little more and immediately fell in love with the BA in English Literature. And a literary career in academia or as a professional writer, published author, magazine column contributor...the possibilities are endless.

I am petitioning for a Maximum Timeframe Appeal because I wish to take the undergraduate lower division classes required to obtain a Bachelors Degree in English Literature at your institution. I have a natural passion for writing. I manage an online blog pertaining to my health struggles and have discovered the sheer joy of putting my writing "out there". I need to hone, sharpen and develop this natural talent with instruction and discipline, which I expect to find an abundance of with this chosen coursework. A degree in English Literature will teach me how to write for an audience by (re)introducing me to the classical writings of our time. It will take a raw talent and morph it into a marketable skill.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thanks for joining,
Leah