Earthquakes are almost as scary as going back to school...
Got rudely woke up this morning by an earthquake. 5.7 is what they are saying. All my paintings and glass objects were rattling and there is always that deep throated rumbling hum that accompanies these things. It is a most insecure feeling. I stayed in bed hoping my overhead light didn't shake loose. Common objects become potential trajectory devices. A reminder that we are vulnerable and at the mercy and whim of Mothernature and that anytime, anywhere disaster can strike. Dontcha love it!!
Even scarier is next week I am going to be taking a couple of classes here at my local university. It has been 10 years since I last took a class. When I do the math, I see that I was still in my 30's when this happened. I feel like such a different person now. So much has happened since then...
So, I am taking a creative writing course that will most likely put me smack in the middle of a bunch of much younger folk. Which I suppose is okay, but knowing that they, in their youth, are going to be more talented than me is a painful notion.
I've never really done any creative writing other than poetry, so this will mostly be all new. Story? Maybe I will come here and beg others to help me with my homework? What if I don't get an "A"? That will be devastating. I am trying to prep myself for that in advance. It is the most likely outcome.
Flipping through my main textbook, I see it caters to youth, trying to relate to their particular lifestyles. When I previously attended classes here and there over several years, I never considered age like I am now. It is difficult to come to terms with a number that defines you when you don't feel it fits. I find myself saying things like, "I am almost 50." Trying on that number as if speaking it will make it less daunting once it reaches down and snatches up me up into that decade. The one that makes me do math and consider with no doubts that I am more than half way through my life...
Even scarier is next week I am going to be taking a couple of classes here at my local university. It has been 10 years since I last took a class. When I do the math, I see that I was still in my 30's when this happened. I feel like such a different person now. So much has happened since then...
So, I am taking a creative writing course that will most likely put me smack in the middle of a bunch of much younger folk. Which I suppose is okay, but knowing that they, in their youth, are going to be more talented than me is a painful notion.
I've never really done any creative writing other than poetry, so this will mostly be all new. Story? Maybe I will come here and beg others to help me with my homework? What if I don't get an "A"? That will be devastating. I am trying to prep myself for that in advance. It is the most likely outcome.
Flipping through my main textbook, I see it caters to youth, trying to relate to their particular lifestyles. When I previously attended classes here and there over several years, I never considered age like I am now. It is difficult to come to terms with a number that defines you when you don't feel it fits. I find myself saying things like, "I am almost 50." Trying on that number as if speaking it will make it less daunting once it reaches down and snatches up me up into that decade. The one that makes me do math and consider with no doubts that I am more than half way through my life...
posted by Laurie at
12:04 PM
2 Comments:
May I suggest that you take a lead from 'When I am old I shall wear purple,' and be brutally outspoken in a truthful way with your young 'charges.'
Coming at them from the 'side-field,' will knock them off balance and create a persona within their perception, which is not totally you, but bears a very close resemblance.
See yourself as an eccentric English governess who doesn't give a sh1t about convention, but who knows her subject like a good'n.
The 'games afoot' and playing is the best part of it.
I know someone who took a degree from the age of 46 and spent 3 years sitting with classes of 18 year old girls, discussing English Literature, love, lust, rejection, denial, social mores, gender imbalances, voices and sex. That was a hell of a period, culminating in receiving their degree, aged 50.
By
john, at 3:02 PM
Hi John~
What a nice surprise to see your note.
Ha! An eccentric English governess. I like it!
I ended up making a big change last week to my class. I sat there through the first week and found out that the instructor required about a third of our weekly class to be dedicated to sitting in class and writing. No particular reason for it being done in class, it was not due at the end of the day. It was frustrating because I just cannot start writing on the word, "go." And I am not very comfortable writing in public either. I asked my instructor if there could be compromise (like not having to do the writing 'in class') but she didn't budge. BUT there is a very happy ending. The same class was being offered as a 'distance' class (over the internet) out of the Sitka campus. I was able to sign up and join a few days late. I love the freedom of being able to write when I am prepared to write (not when I am commanded).
Two peeps in my class already have master's degrees; one of them in English! The others are young stay at home mom types who are also going to school. I'm really happy how things turned out.
So, are you the unnamed person who received their degree late(r) in life?
I don't know where I'm going with this. But it is definately good to be back on a learning track.
There is a serendipitous bent your your comment about "purple." Last week or so, I was watching a Youtube and on came this amazing song. I'd never heard anything like it. I caught a couple of the lyric and googled it to find the title. Turned out to be called: "Start Wearing Purple" (!!) It is this frolicking, gypsy punk (yes, gypsy punk) piece. I have it in my itunes now. Okay. Okay! Purple! I get it (haha)
By
Laurie, at 4:53 PM
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