Return from one busy hiatus

My sister brought it to my attention that she has noticed the lack of new blog postings, and so I thought I'd take the time and breathe life back into this machine.

I've been busy with school, what with writing for my class, and deciding to join the school's newspaper staff as Assistant Editor. These are very pleasant things to keep busy with, but they are making me a good kind of tired that has made me lag on my blogging. I go to school just two days a week, but they are busy days that carry over into my off days as well.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I attend class from 1 to 2:15 PM, and then squeeze in some writing in the computer lab until the Arapahoe Free Press News meeting at 4 PM. The meetings have generally been lasting until about 5:30, and they are all about starting this publication from scratch. That's right-- from scratch. Unlike at Metro where I was a reporter, an always existing publication with a huge staff and faculty working on it, the AFP is a publication that is completely run by students. Even the advertising is something that the students handle and make money from. It's cool, but kind of nerve-racking to have so much responsibility that includes dealing with a very limited budget.

For staff, there are nine of us, and we hope to recruit more people to write, as we're all editors and designers. Sure, we will contribute some writing, but we still need people who will just be writers to fill the gaps for news, features and reviews. It's up to us to recruit by talking to the department heads, and talking to classes in session throughout the school. There are going to be a lot of growing pains involved with taking this thing off the ground, but I think it's going to be worth it. I worked as a reporter and opinion columnist for The Metropolitan, and never got a chance to advance to an editor's position, but here I am now, an Assistant Editor. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time. I'm mostly excited, though.

Much like our bodies, our minds need exercise to better themselves, and this is an exercise with a wealth of benefits that will last long after it ends.

In the meantime, I'm one busy and tired-- but mostly happy-- camper.

I don't have to justify myself. But I could.

My first day of school, or class really, has come and gone. The first day of Getting Your Work Published was an enjoyable experience, and the professor eager to help her students achieve.

My fears of being the oldest person in the room were quickly put aside when I found that most of the class was people even older than me. Moreover, I found that all the people in the class consider themselves writers, but have the same struggles in getting published that I do. There is strength and comfort in numbers, and that is the greatest benefit of such a course that is going on its third semester in the entire state of Colorado. I foresee great benefits being reaped from this course that forces students to work, produce and get published right in the classroom. I was very lucky to stumble upon this.

I did have a few moments of panic after a few writers introduced themselves and their accomplishments. One guy who is actually taking this class a second time for its benefit of helping him move along with his writing, has one book and two novellas in the fantasy genre, just waiting to be submitted. He seems to be of the younger few in the class. An older lady, said that she had written and published regularly for years, and was a contributor to Colorado Voices, a regular Op-ed column of The Denver Post. This woman also said that she was awaiting a response from The New Yorker, because she had just submitted a piece to them. WOW. That's a lot of pressure, but it's also good inspiration and motivation to write my heart out and publish the heck out of each word. But in the meantime, no pressure!

But though the age wasn't as big an issue as I feared it would be, it was still kind of strange to get back into school as an older and more aware student hungry for more knowledge.

I remember when I was starting out in college and seeing those people like me now sitting in rooms full of young faces. I thought to myself, Dude, if I was done with school and had my degree, I'd so not be here.

What I didn't realize then was that education is a privilege. A privilege that I took for granted and didn't utilize as well as I should have. Instead, I went through the motions so I could get out into the world with that degree in hand, free of homework and papers to drag me down.

A few years out of college proved to be difficult. Jobs weren't lined up for me, and I realized just how useful the career services office at school could have been to me had I taken the time to visit it, rather than leaving campus the minute my last class of the day was over. I learned a lot while in school back then, but not as much as I could've had I been hungry for knowledge. Moreover, life taught me the really important things that college never did . . . that it's hard. Really hard. Especially for a writer winging it on their own.

Well, after seven years out and about in the real world, free of homework and papers, I am hungry. In fact, I'm famished. I want to learn, I want to work hard, I want homework, I want to meet new people... all of these things I took for granted when my presence in a classroom didn't have to be justified. Well, now my justification is ready, and it's very simple.

I'm here because I want to be.