Just Get Going

-

Last May, I read an interview Greg James did about his upcoming children’s book, “Kid Normal”. And when asked what his number one tip for someone wanting to become a writer would be, he answered, “Just get going.” 

So, I will be.

Beginning in September, I am very proud to be included in the Creative Writing Fiction M.F.A. Program at Columbia College Chicago. It’s where I hope to title the book in this picture and fill the pages with all the words of a story that so far is only found inside of me. And as for the sweatshirt, well, back in the summer while visiting the campus, I almost bought one. It has a hot dog on it after all. But I got a magazine instead and went to sit with it across the street in Grant Park where I listened to Kesha sing over and over again about realizing life is short. And I so badly hoped that wanting it hadn’t jinxed something. It meaning the sweatshirt, and the acceptance and the buzzy way it felt on Michigan Avenue during an afternoon in August. I wanted all of it. I want so much more than all of it.

I’m still processing that I’m getting to get it. That I have been deemed talented enough and am letting myself be brave enough to do it.

But really, it’s true. I’ve just got to get going. And I can’t wait for you all to read what’s to come. 
Location: Westfield, NJ 07090, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Librarian's First Day of School

-
Image
Tomorrow is my first day of the MFA program.  I know it is also the first day at Brunner School. I have spent time this week already wondering what the library is going to look like this year for the students.  Who is going to greet them on the blacktop as they line up behind the freshly painted teacher short hand codes.  Because I will tell you that there is nothing that makes summer ending feel a little more tolerable than the way a slightly anxious child's face lights up when they see you.  They know you.  Everything is going to be okay. I will be looking for the faces of the people I met at orientation tomorrow with I think some of that same trepidation.  It's hard to start something new and not know what it's going to be.  Even when you're 33. But yes, I got to meet a lot of people who I will be in classes with at two orientation events.  We all worked together on that lovely Spongebob themed sign you see.  (I drew the ke...
Read more

Good luck movin' up cause I'm movin' out

-
Image
It's been a little while since I updated, and I am sorry for that.  I left on an apartment hunting mission a few days after school ended (without my computer!), and wound up renting the first apartment I saw (after having seen others too, don't worry). I'll be living in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, where I can in fact walk to Lake Michigan.  It's in between Lincoln Park, where there's a very cute zoo, and Wrigleyville, the neighborhood where you can go to watch the Cubs.  I can also walk to lots of restaurants and stores (including a Target!) and a local library branch.  And I'm currently packing up everything to move there! But before my life became securing things in bubble wrap and taping cardboard together, I did have a lot of fun in Chicago and also visiting friends in Atlanta. This is my city now! We did an interval workout class under this honeycomb at the Lincoln Park Zoo.  It started to rain in the middle and that was honestly ki...
Read more

You Will Be Found

-
Image
Back in December of 2016, my mom and I went to go see Dear Evan Hansen .  It was at that point just some show I had heard had done well off-Broadway but that I thought might be good.  I knew nothing about what I was in for. I cried.  I cried so much.  I cried way more than I did when I went to go see Me and Earl and the Dying Girl  and I cried during that movie to such a degree that my friend's boyfriend leaned over to her and asked if I was okay.  And I was okay in that movie theater, just caught up in a sad story (come on, the words dying girl are in its title!).  But I was not okay during Dear Evan Hansen. Or after.  My poor mother and I walked, shell shocked, through a slowly falling snow to talk to a lot of Italian food about our feelings.  Of which there were many.  Because the story is tragic, but uplifting and inspirational and unifying and filled with longing.  And yet at the same time I felt so hollow, even with all of...
Read more