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Hall Chat: This is the new term I am attaching to all of my posts. It is a term that the nine first year Nonfiction MFA students have coined, and it defines the 10-20 minutes before class, when we have coffee in hand (vending machine snacks, Dunkin Donuts wrapped sandwiches, milkshakes) and we sit down outside the classroom door, waiting for class to start. We sit down on the floor, backs against the walls, coats lumped next to us and our legs stretched out in front of us, sometimes creating a hurdle for those walking past. Right before a 6:30pm class, when you’ve been on campus all day—teaching, working at an on-campus job, or coming from an off-campus job—things start to get a little loopy. You need the coffee to stay awake, but you need the Hall Chat to decompress.

Hall Chat began, for me, in the very first semester. This was before I knew about the secrets of the fifth floor (see previous post: Cubbyholes & The Adjunct Office). It was when I was obsessed with being on time and afraid I didn’t know where I was going, so I would sit outside the classroom door, in the hallway, with twenty minutes to spare, just to calm my nerves and make sure that I was where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there.  I wasn’t the only person in the hall. Maybe we were all a little anxiety-filled in those first few days (weeks, months).

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And so began Hall Chat. And then an extension of Hall Chat, our nightly trip to Dunkin. Oh, yes. Dunkin Donuts—medium coffee (I take mine with cream only)—an absolute necessity for an evening class. And, it’s a one minute walk from the 33 Building where all Nonfiction classes are held.

Hall Chat is where questions get answered, stress is released, therapy is given. This is where the good stuff happens (more of the stuff nobody knows, the secret stuff). We all need Hall Chat. Hall Chat is crucial to understanding the MFA experience, and because all of the important stuff comes up at some point during Hall Chat, I think it only fitting to attach the term to my blog posts.

Now, maybe you’re thinking how could this kind of waiting outside of the classroom ritual be any different than the one that you experienced as an Undergraduate, and I will tell you, quite possibly it is not. Did you want to arrive early to talk to your classmates? If so, then it was. If not, this Hall Chat’s for you. (Ahem, maybe this program’s for you?) There are 10-12 people in class (usually less), so you have a built-in, weekly catch up with a small group of people.  And we laugh. And laugh. And laughing right before an evening class when everyone’s a little wonky is so cathartic during the really stressful moments during the semester (mid semester and the last two weeks especially). Hall Chat is healing and absolutely necessary for the Graduate experience. This is, of course, my opinion. You’ll have to try it out for yourself, but I think you’ll find that I’m onto something.

Maybe it’s gotten a little out of control, and maybe at 5:45pm I like to announce that it’s coffee and Hall Chat time, and maybe it’s a little indulgent to sit in a hallway for 20 minutes decompressing when I think about all of the things I should be doing, but sometimes (most times) it really is the best part of my day.