Something I thought about:

  • This was the final week of class at Olin, so I’ve been thinking about everything we’ve accomplished over the past few months. I’m happy with how the semester went — the class came together beautifully as a supportive community comprising distinct personalities and voices. I’d also wanted to take students on a field trip, bring authors to class, hold a public reading, and put together a course literary magazine — all of which we fit into the semester. I liked meeting twice a week so that we could have plenty of time to delve into readings, do in-class writings, and hold workshops. I’m going to miss this group.
  • Today also marks the one-year anniversary of my public defense, and I’ve been thinking of how packed the past year has been — completing a CELTA intensive, moving to the US, teaching at Olin, starting at Performant, and moving into a home. It’s been a lot, and I couldn’t have predicted this a year ago.

Something I did:

  • Taught my final week of class.
  • Skipped French class because of workload.
  • Added all of the course literary magazine site content and finalized the design.
  • Caught up on email and then got swamped again.
  • Learned about several of our plants
  • Attended several meetings.
  • Went to a surprise birthday party.
  • Facilitated a class reading.
  • Said goodbye to students. Almost lost it because they were so sweet. Managed to keep it together.

Something I read:

We strive to escape the self only to be returned to it. The way that our best critics float into the text, reporting from within vast spaces, can be born only from concentrated, claustrophobic thinking and stillness. These irreconcilabilities become the form. To extend the life of a work—a novel, a poem, a play—we feed it our own.