Celebrating Literature, Writing and Friends

By Casey Tolfree

I was waiting until I had all my classes to post about them. So, Friday I officially had my last first class. It's a practicum class at Adelphi's NYC campus. It's actually pretty cool. We have to host closed blogs on our online portal where we review other blogs and cultural events. It's with all the first year students so I meant the remaining few I hadn't already met last semester. We all go out afterwards too so it's a lot of fun.

I'm reposting the blogs for class on my personal blog if you want to check it out.

My biggest problem in college I feel was that after I lost my housing I had to commute from Westchester to Queens. (There's a big bridge with a big toll in the middle) and it was just a lot of driving to go out and party then have to drive home. So I missed a lot of things senior year. I'm trying not to do that now. So I'm going out even if it's a bit of a hassle to get to the city.

My workshop with Victor LaValle is so great. He's a really great professor. It's very structured and we are working a lot on writing and not so much on reading. I was the first story workshopped and I got so much out of it. I learned what my classmates loved about my piece and what they thought needed work. I felt that I really understand the concerns of the audience.

It was my first attempt at a short story so I'm glad it went over well. I think that Victor is going to be a really productive teaching experience. He's so different from our other fiction professors in the program.

My last class (which was consequently my first class of the semester) is African American Women Playwrights. I was really concerned about this class. I wound up taking it because it paired on days with my workshop. I was worried that it wouldn't be interesting for me, but my professor, Kermit Frazier, is teaching it as a sort of history through plays type of class. I love learning about civil rights and integration and all the class/race warfare that went on in the early years of the country, so this class is really helping me to feed into that interest.

Anyways, I just wanted to post about the beginning of the semester and let you all know how it's going. Last semester was definitely a learning curve and I think this semester I'm ready to take it all head on. I'm more comfortable with my classmates and myself as well as with my professors. I think some of my best writing might come out of this semester. I'm inspired and I can't stop writing. Last semester I barely had time to write, now I'm finishing my work on the weekends so I can have Monday and Tuesday before class to write.

I hope everyone is having a great spring semester!