Sitting in Alumni Hall, taking notes from brilliant local and national minds, swapping thoughts and texts with fellow writers and students, clicking laptop keys and hastily scratching pens…Residency was everything I could have wanted and then some.

We don’t often consider the true value of an academic journey when we are inside it as a young person. We are too busy striving to succeed and get to whatever we believe that-next-something needs to be.
I am reminding myself to stay in the moment I am in.
Soaking it all in.
One word and one sentence at a time.

Highlights / Notations to remember

1. The chocolate tin was a great idea. (stay stocked up for motivation through the late afternoon lectures.)

2. Keep documenting the little funny things in your path. (The poetic epitaphs carved into desks, the random condom in the back of a lecture hall, and the way your fitness watch alerted you to breathe deeply when you got nervous before pitching to a director)

3. On the ‘day off,’ block off a full morning, afternoon, or evening to rest. (a two-hour nap is not enough recharge time.)

4. Plan to skip something small on day seven. Don’t feel guilty; your nervous system needs a reset by this time.

5. Pre-schedule / book a hot yoga session for your first day back to normal living. (You’ll feel good just knowing it’s coming)

6. Keep up those morning walks, no matter how early you have to wake up for them. (Truly, they kept you sane!)

7. Stay aware and open to the students around you. (reach out to the person overwhelmed in the corner, listen to the project concept of the other writers, ask how others are doing, share insight and ideas where helpful and stay open to what you may not understand.)

8. And document the normal things. (Capture that rainbow on the first evening, the way the rain splattered at your feet, the debrief voice memos with your friends, the lectures, the way your desk looked, and the way the sun lit up the campus.)

9. Do as much as you can. Enjoy the whole process. You’ll only be doing this MFA once.

10. Enjoy every single damn second.