One of the best rewards of working with people from all over the country is hearing their stories. In my writing classes this winter there were stories from Texas cafes, a Mandarin Chinese classroom, and a Brunswick, Georgia, farm. There were accounts of Depression-era Iowa and wartime London. There were chronicles of Sixties war protestors at the University of Wisconsin and murders near Vassar. There were ancestral legends of long, arduous journeys from England and Ireland and Switzerland and Germany. And ribald tales from Canadian logging camps and South Georgia bars.
Today is officially my last day of the spring term with Around the Block students, and Thursday was my last day for my Jekyll Island students. My next teaching gigs are in April with the University of Richmond’s Continuing Studies and Chesterfield County’s Lifelong Learning Institute. So while I have the month of March to work on my own writing, I will miss the stories.
It was a grand journey, complete with lush scenery, charming dialects, and strong-minded characters, both real and imagined. I look forward to April.
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The time spent with Sara over the years and weekend "specials" which added Tracy and Liz to the group have been truly enlightening to my life and my writing life. I thank all of you for waking me up to the joy of placing my thoughts down on paper, bringing back so many events forgotten from so long ago, and stretching out into inventing some events of my own. Hope your days and months to come are joyful until I see you again. All summer I expect to have my legs draped over an overstuffed chair and be deep into some interesting books. It's about the only time I get to read anymore and I shall take good advantage!
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