Tis A Glorious Ending

I was almost late this morning for Creative Writing, which I will (conveniently) blame on transit. Trains just don’t come enough to suit my laziness to get out of bed. I’m so tired from these coughing fits at night — every time I began to doze off, I cough myself into a wakefulness like I was drinking a cup of coffee before bed.

I sit in the chair, and as usual awkwardly look around, awkwardly open my back pack, awkwardly fold my arms, and awkwardly so on. Everyone was encouraged to bring food for an epic feast. Everyone brought baked goods, a couple brought fruit, and funny enough the fruit was most popular. Especially the grapefruit, which were big and juicy (I saw juice dripping out of a couple people’s mouths). I’m not a fan of grapefruits, but in retrospect I wish I had taken one as they smelled awesome. For the most part, though, I kept my hands away from the food. I had been coughing all morning. There is no point in spreading the plague to the undeserving.

For the last class we went around the circle, picking our favorite part of our final short story to read out loud. A few people picked the middle, but the majority, including me, decided to read the first page. My theory is everyone’s work was awesome, so they didn’t know which awesome part to read. An interesting thing I concluded during the readings is the stories sounded infinitely better when read out loud. I think the writer truly knows the voice of their characters and narrator, so they really bring their story alive (cliche, I know).

When the spinner landed on me, I lost my voice. I’m wondering if that was the consequence of me continuously worrying I would lose my voice. I awkwardly read the first page of Just Jump (its name has changed formally, just not in my heart), and I somehow managed to prevent myself from coughing phlegm all over my final draft. Damn that would have been embarrassing.

I am going to detour a moment. I am sitting in the cafeteria of my school. It over looks the main hallway, and gets noisy during lunch hour, which is now. I really find it disturbing to look up at others eating sometimes. We are so uncivilized. This heavier set man is eating a Quiznos sub like a T-Rex. He is literally tearing the sandwich apart with his mouth, and fitting half of it in his mouth at once. I can’t see, but there must be more than one sandwich there at the rate he is eating.

I finished my story with barely any force left in my voice. It was a little disappointing because I wanted to bring out some of my character’s emotions during the dialogue. I usually read my work out loud to make sure the voice is consistent, and the prose is smooth (not saying I’m perfect).

For the last hour of the class I got the opportunity to chat with a couple of my classmates. There are some really cool people in the class I am going to miss, and I hate to sound sentimental. One is in a band, and he stood up on the chairs, clapped some drum sticks together to catch the attention of the class. He invited everyone to the school’s bar to see his band play (Lions and Lambs I think the band is called). His critiques were unique because sometimes he’s be blunt, which I respect. Another cool guy couldn’t sit still, and talked about philosophy, writing, reading and so on. He is an interesting fellow and quite an engaging person to talk with, which is rare. I met him at the publishers’ panel a couple weeks ago. I also got an opportunity to get to know someone I have sat beside a couple times, and that person have a great sense of humor, so I hope I hear from them over the summer holiday through Facebook. They mentioned that some of us should do a collaborative project, like a blog or something. I think such would be a fantastic idea.

To tie this up, it has been an awesome semester. A great way to end it. And I am excited for September’s creative writing course (and script writing course).