College Play-by-Play

Fall 2004

Honors English, college algebra, concepts in fitness, Old Testament, Intro to Philosophy, and German 1. I get up for algebra at 8:00 every morning. I share a room for the first time in my life. I lie about the steps on my pedometer, which doesn’t work anyway. Since I don’t know any better, I read a thousand-page book on philosophy from Plato to Locke.

Spring 2005

Writer’s Seminar, Honors English 2, Walk/Jog, Intro to Psychology, New Testament, Speech, German 2. I read Homer and love it. My A in psychology is actually at risk. I share a room for the first time in my life with a person I don’t really like. Ich spreche ein wenig Deutsch.

Interlude: Summer 2005

I travel to Urumqi, China, and fail to teach English to middle-schoolers for four weeks.

Fall 2005

First Semester Civ, Brit Lit I, Colloquium: Lewis, German 3. I experience civ, a six-hour joint literature and history class. I read the Pearl poet and Alexander Pope. I read Mere Christianity, again. I watch some German movies and actually understand them. I experience again a room of one’s own.

Spring 2006

Writer’s Seminar. Second Semester Civ, Brit Lit II, Chaucer, Fine Arts, Colloquium: Fine Arts. I move to the back row of civ. I read Matthew Arnold and Chinua Achebe, again. I struggle through Middle English. I feel like I’m starting to get this whole college thing.

Fall 2006

Advanced Composition, Drama, American Lit I, Frost and Stevens, Intro to Sociology, Colloquium: King Arthur. I laugh my way through Advanced Comp and Sociology. I find myself surprised to enjoy reading some stageplays, for which class I write one of my favorite papers. I drag myself through travel narratives and contemporary poetry. I present papers at the Sigma Tau Delta Conference in Pittsburgh. In a whirl of stress, I write over three hundred pages this semester.

Interlude: January 2007

Natural Science, Literature for Young Adults. Safe now in the little red house on Pulaski Street, I knock out six hours in one of the easiest J-terms ever, since we are snowed in and class is always canceled.

Spring 2007

Comparative Civ, Shakespeare, American Lit II, Biblical Ethics, Colloquium: Viennese Aesthetic, Contracted Study. I read everything for Shakespeare except Troilus and Creseyde/Cressida. I enjoy reading contemporary fiction. I am under the laughably mistaken impression that I will be writing the first part of a novel for my thesis.

Fall 2007

Poetry, Wharton and Fitzgerald, OSLEP class with Marilynne Robinson, Independent Study, Colloquium: [I’ve Forgotten]. I see Marilynne Robinson for perhaps six hours. I learn about the slicks. I continue to hold most poetry in contempt. I change my thesis to “The Education of a Heroine,” and write most of it. I stress about graduate school and my future. I feel like I’m starting to get this whole college thing.

Spring 2008

Art History, Independent Study, Fiction, Intro to Linguistics, Critical Perspectives. I can now converse about Bakhtin and Derrida. I really, really work for my A in Linguistics. I finish writing my thesis and present it. I write a decent short story. I get rejected from seven graduate schools. I get engaged. Eventually, I graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in English with college honors, summa cum laude.

I’m exhausted. Now I know why.