Thursday, April 19, 2012

Yesterday I had class, and before that I had a conversation with Myla just because I'm young and she's less young and she thought it would be good to talk about all the things no one told her when she was my age. I hope this counts as something I've learned.

I have the advantage of being young. I have a lot of time ahead of me. I'm reminded of that at every corner. Myla was talking about the things that will happen to me after college, and I guess I haven't really put any thought into them just yet. She advised strongly against a creative writing major--which, I have to admit, I had sort of been thinking myself. She said that if I could string a sentence together I wasn't going to learn much from adding onto what I already knew--rather, study something that gives me something to write about, or English, so that I can read. I don't know what I'm going to major in--obviously--but it will probably be English. Or I could surprise myself and do something totally unrelated. That could be cool.

We were talking about how there are jobs that buy you time and jobs that buy you money. If you're a writer, you sort of have to choose one. I don't know what that means just yet, but I think I'll find out.

I'm meeting with my mentor tomorrow so I can get on that mysterious buddy assignment that was never quite explained to me. I'm also going to start writing--I took today off because I literally killed myself yesterday trying to finish everything for my workshop in time--and workshopping for next week, because as always I have a ton to do. We are reading Beloved in Lit and it has always been one of my favorite books. I'm loving it just as much this time around and I'm absolutely delighted to be doing it.

Let's see, what else. I would really really really like to know my presentation date so that I can actually get started on the portfolio. I'm not starting anything before I get that date. I know that seems stubborn of me but I want to get as much writing done as possible and although the project itself is important, I relish the organization and the pulling everything together. I'm not really nervous about my presentation just yet because it's such a foreign concept. It hasn't quite hit me yet that this year--and this saga--is not quite over.

I have a crazy week on tap. I had today off and treated it like a weekend, although I did do a lot of my lit reading. I have tomorrow, Focus class and then Lit and then meeting with Lynne, and then after that writing, hopefully, and workshopping and reading and all that good stuff. On Saturday I have to do all my schoolwork and I have to pack, because Sunday-Monday I'm going to be at Columbia visiting (and not writing, at least not yet) and then on Tuesday I have school and after that I'm going back to Columbia to see my favorite author speak. I can't even tell you how excited I am to actually see Mark Z. Danielewski in person. I literally cried when I found out that he was speaking. You have no idea. And then after that I have Wednesday morning to catch up on all the things I didn't do over the weekend--including Calliope, which is in its crazy season right now--and then back to the city again, for workshop. I'm going to try and get Myla to allow me to audio record at least the part where I am personally being workshopped, although I don't know how successful I'll be. It seems a little silly that I need an audio/visual component to a presentation that clearly does not lend itself to that, but what can I do.

I'm pretty content with where I am right now. I think it has to do a lot with the weather. And the fact that I actually have two (almost three) short stories and I will probably have more before I have to give my presentation. I don't have a whole lot to say because I don't have a whole lot to complain about.