What can you do with that?

I graduate university in almost a month. When I tell people that I'm graduating with a creative writing degree, their eyes light up for a brief moment - I guess it's more interesting than the answer they were expecting - and then just as quickly the surprise gives way to a searching expression, followed by the question that I've learned to dread:

 'so,' they say, 'what can you do with that?'

'It's a piece of paper,' I want to say. 'What I can do with it is limited to what anyone can do with a piece of paper. I can put it in a frame. I can make a paper plane. I could do origami, only I've always found it way too difficult.  If I wanted something functional I would have gone to the two dollar shop and bought a bottle opener or an apple peeler or a lemon juicer. These are objects that you 'do' something 'with.' My degree was a series of intellectual hurdles, and clearing them broadened my appreciation of the written word and my understanding of the human condition. I did them all, and now they're done. Now they're done, the world looks different. I'm not the same person. It's made me better. Rest assured, I'll get a job. I'm not going to sit at home all day in a dressing gown writing short stories that don't sell while the good citizens of the world (read: you) support me. But I've decided that the job I get is not what I'm going to live for. I'm going to live for trips to the library. For the joy of writing a paragraph that works, and the dark pleasure of slashing out one that doesn't. For reading real-life like a story. For finding inspiration in everyday conversation. For the moment when my friend or co-worker says 'I once knew this girl - ' or 'I've got this Uncle-' and the story they innocently narrate over coffee is good enough to weave into a novel. My degree has made me into a person who looks for beauty in the mundane, and for art in the daily. A person who is always alert to possibility. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life, but I can guarantee I won't get bored with it.'

But of course, that's not what I say. Instead I say:

'Not much really. Maybe one day I'll do post-grad.'