Nature Art

The first thing I will say about graduating from Columbia College Chicago is what overwhelming gratitude I have for the school, the professors, and the community of poets I got to share the experience with.

My fellow classmates were the most inspirational and supportive individuals I have ever come across. I hold their friendship dear and the dialogue and conversations we had over the last two years have become a part of who I am today.

The second thing I will say is that the ceremony is truly wonderful and if you come to Columbia College Chicago you will definitely want to walk and receive your degree. Commencement was awe inspiring as the school showcased its talented individuals and we listened to inspiring speeches that encouraged all of us to become better people. My reason for attending the school in the first place was to get better at writing, at seeing the world, and to further develop my understanding. All of these things I received while here and the community was a big part of that.

Now that I am on the other side of graduation, I spend my days working at a golf course where I get to work in nature and I get to do something I enjoy before I leave for China to teach English to young children.

I have discovered the time to do the other things I enjoy. I am reading science-fiction/fantasy and painting again.

Learning to Paint

I am also taking long walks and creating nature sculptures. I first learned about this concept in Lisa Fishman’s poetry class when she showed us the film “Rivers and Tides.” And now I am trying to work again with nature, to understand it, or at the very least begin a discourse.

These things are the building blocks of my poetry and it is refreshing to have the time to enjoy them. I write this from the square where I often go to read and enjoy the summer. A young girl is running around looking for new things to discover. She picks up chalk, scrapes it across the ground to see its effect, and throws it away. She picks up maple seeds “little green helicopters” and throws them in the wind and watches as they spiral down. She runs across a sewer grate and stops and stares between the holes. She jumps up and down, hears the echo clang from down below, and then runs off.

The square where I read and write.

At times these moments are forgotten in the hectic life of grad school, the ability to run around and discover! You will certainly learn a lot, much of which I am only now coming to actualize, but that is the way of life and learning. It takes the building blocks and the time to create the relations in our mind.

Columbia College Chicago was a phenomenal building block, a phenomenal path, and I can only imagine the things I have learned here will continue to bounce their way up to me—an echo of sorts started over these last two years to follow me throughout life.

As you enter grad school may you find the time for discovery. It will inevitably be hectic, but it’s important to remember that the things we see and do in the moment are often lessons for the future.