My view as a I write

Until recently, I have remarked upon how mild this winter is compared to the Polar Vortexes we experienced last winter at the very end of January. I should have probably held my tongue because this past weekend we received around 20” of snow within twenty-four hours!

My neighborhood is still digging itself out of drifts, which in some places are three or four feet high! Although it’s rough going trying to find a path through the neighborhood, when I make it to my destination I have a great feeling of accomplishment. Coming from Central Florida where the average annual low temperature is somewhere around 50 degrees (though I have certainly seen it get into the upper 30’s on some rare occasions), I am missing the warm weather and the sunshine, but it’s really neat to see the ways in which people (and I) can adapt.

Dibs is real. [Dibs (noun) A Chicago winter tradition in which citizens leave household items in parking spaces they spent hours shoveling out. Technically illegal, but don’t move anything unless you want your car harmed or butt kicked.]

This semester I am enrolled in three classes: Prose Models by Poets, Nonfiction Film, and Workshop. Each one of them is exciting me and challenging me in new ways and just when I thought I had a handle on my own idea of the essay, the readings and films I have been taking in during the past few weeks are helping my vision evolve. The essays that I have been working on for the past year are all starting to “talk” to each other and become part of a dialogue, which is extremely exciting as I draw closer and closer to the end of my program.

Blizzard Aftermath

It’s satisfying and exciting to say that this is my last semester of classes before I enter thesis hours, but I have to admit I’ll miss taking classes once I get there, even if three classes + teaching + work packs my schedule so full I sometimes wonder when I’ll have time to eat or sleep. Each semester has been a chance to grow and reinvent myself and my creative visions, but most importantly, to deepen my understanding of writing, literary culture, and the cultural and social impact of nonfiction.