This post is part of a series. View the last post for context.
My poetry workshop went crazy last week. We got on the DART train. It felt weird at first, sitting with about ten other students and our professor having class on the train while other people were riding to work. I felt conspicuous and a little cringey, but I nevertheless enjoyed myself. For one, getting outside the classroom and into the world, observing real life and real people, is exactly what documentary poetics is about, and the way I’ve always loved to write. Then we got to walk through a lovely Oak Cliff neighborhood to my professor’s house, where her kind and generous wife offered us homemade cake and tea. We had class in her living room, then a fellow student gave us a lift back to the DART station for the long ride back to Cityline. Dr. Stone mentioned that in her academic career, there was more porosity between classroom and personal life, and having lunch or dinner with your professor was commonplace. It’s not the norm at UTD, but it was an enriching experience.
Speaking of which, my one other classmate was absent from last week’s class meeting for Foundations of Interdisciplinary Inquiry (heretofore to be referred to as Foundations), so Dr. Hammonds and I met at the Starbucks in the Student Union. We both figured class would be shorter this week since it was just the two of us, but apparently we like to yap. Ok, I like to yap. It was a fascinating conversation that unexpectedly led to me discovering a focus for my research on memes, which will likely extend beyond the MAIS. The kind of one-on-one personalized attention you receive in our program is unique and satisfying, especially coming from a huge program where I felt not only that I wasn’t a good fit, but that I was lost in the crowd.
This week I’ll have my first poem workshopped (yikes) and turn in an Intellectual Autobiography, which is something I’ve looked forward to writing, but now I’m dreading a bit. It feels self-indulgent to write such a document, but I can see how it will be helpful for me to reflect on and for my professor to know.
Between all of this, Paisley Rekdal’s reading, the Gender Lecture Series event, plus other work duties, not to mention the three kids I’m responsible for, it’s a crazy busy week that I won’t be sorry to put behind me. Still, it’s not so bad to be busy when you’re busy with good stuff.
Reminder: I’ll be posting on Tuesday again next week because I’ll be at a transfer fair Monday. See you then!
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