So...this semester I'm taking two graduate level creative writing classes. This is something that is equally exciting and terrifying to me. The first assignment for each class was to post (on our online class forums) a short "about me."
I wrote a different one for each class, because it kind of felt like cheating to use the same one twice, and because I already felt limited by writing these about me's to start with...there is something strange and unnatural about trying to peg yourself down, I think. Anyhoo...a few people requested that I post them on my blog. So, here you go.
A Cross Section
I always find these things a little difficult. First, because finding a way to straddle the line between boring and pompous is always difficult when you’re talking about yourself. Second, because I never know where to start…
So, for simplicity’s sake, let’s start in the middle and work our way out. At my core is a strange and indivisible concoction of fire, sunshine, wine, un-checked-off to-do lists, unbridled anxiety, and disconnected dreams. Outside of that are just your average skin and bones, clothes that I’m never sure are quite fashionable, and a usually unkempt head of hair.
Outside of me proper are the little bits of myself that float around in other people. I generally like to keep them close to me so as to feel as ultimately whole as possible (if such a thing is, in fact, possible). These people include my husband, my almost one-year old son, my parents, my sister, my grandparents, a handful of friends, and sometimes even random acquaintances.
I’m a lifetime Arkansan – a graduate of Cabot High School, the University of Central Arkansas (with a major in English and a minor in Cultural Anthropology), and, hopefully soon, Henderson’s MLA program. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do after that. I used to want to be a teacher, but after teaching two sections of Basic English last semester, I not only lost that desire but also my faith in humanity (or at least the direction in which humanity is undeniably heading). I probably shouldn’t say things like that. I probably also shouldn’t change my mind on a lifelong dream after only having such a small (and crappy) taste of it. But if I learned anything last semester, it was that you can’t make people want to learn. You can only just hope that, by some miraculous accident, they do. With that realization, my intellectual idealism withered and died.
On a much lighter and more frivolous note, I like cooking, gardening, sad music, reading blogs, watching football, reading books that are totally beneath the standards of cool English majors (and the worthy books as well), traveling, Indians (of the Native American variety), crappy reality TV, hammocks, and almost any type of food that you can think of. Oh, and words. I am madly in love with words – with their ability to capture reality and unreality alike, with my ability to study them and feel them and string them together in an order that can pull people into my reality and connect me to theirs. I love to write, but I find it to be one of the most terrifying and soul-shaking human experiences. I guess that’s just the kind of package that every truly fulfilling thing is wrapped up in. I dislike insincerity, intolerance, and incoherence.
Overall, my goals are simple: to be content, to spread joy, to learn as much as I possibly can, and to hopefully create something of value.
And...number two:
About Jordan
For some reason, I feel that I should begin this post by saying that I am a girl Jordan, not a boy Jordan. I have made the mistake one too many times of accidentally creating a gender-neutral online persona, and the results are always confusing. I am lots of things: a mama, a student, a chef, a micromanager, a wife, a wanderer, a hypochondriac, a bibliophile... I am a lifetime writer of creative nonfiction. I write to experience life...I write in journals, send letters, draft personal essays, and capture words for my feelings on post-it notes (and sometimes on the backs of receipts or dirty napkins if I'm particularly desperate and left to the contents of my purse). I haven't had lots of experience in a creative writing classroom, so I'm particularly excited to work on my writing under the helpful eyes of some fellow writers!
I used to be the kind of person that would dance around the negative aspects of other people's writing in workshop scenarios, prefering to be constructive and polite, but after spending a few semesters working as a tutor in the Writing Center, I've seen first-hand how truly honest criticism can transform a paper (academic, creative, or otherwise) and help writers push their work to much higher levels. Although I am nervous, I am also hopeful that this class will offer stringent and honest criticism of my work. I want to do something real with my writing, and I'm excited to work on it with all of you and hopefully come out of this semester as a better writer.
I feel as passionately about reading as I do about writing. Books have always been a huge part of my life. They've been my friends, my tickets to other times and places, my teachers, and my constant companions. Somehow I'll make a career out of books, whether through writing them, teaching them, or editing them. My goal this year is to read sixty books. Right now I'm sitting at four, but I'm at least halfway through three others, so I'm about on schedule. Although I love most all genres, I think I'm most partial to young adult and children's literature. After all, that stuff is what got me hooked in the first place. As a student, my interests are primarily American Literature, especially African American and Native American Lit.
So...that's how I box myself up.
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