When I started my undergraduate educational journey at Harvard Extension School I did so that I could be the person that my daughter thought I was. When I started my graduate degree I did it solely for me.
Friends would ask me what I wanted to do when I finally achieved these goals. My answer was always, “I would like to write and, if possible, I would also like to teach.”
Until that time, I would sit in classes listening to my peers and reading their works and wondering how I was allowed to be in their company? They’re so good and I am so…not. Imposter syndrome was very real.
During those years I was traveling on what I knew to be a very shaky passport, forged papers: I knew that I was no legitimate resident in any world of ideas. I knew I couldn’t think. All I knew then was what I couldn’t do. All I knew then was what I wasn’t, and it took me some years to discover what I was.
Which was a writer.
By which I mean not a “good” writer or a,“bad” writer but simply a writer, a person whose most absorbed and passionate hours are spent arranging words on pieces of paper.
– Joan Didion, “Why I Write” published in The New York Times, Dec. 5, 1976.
However, being in their august company also taught me that I have been a writer my whole life, even when I didn’t know it. I thought everyone spent their time writing chapters, plays, scenes, character descriptions, and ideas on whatever piece of paper was handy. It took me decades to find out that this wasn’t true. It is only a handful of us lucky enough or crazy enough to do such things.
I have been an author for nearly two years but what an amazing two years. In that time I have grown comfortable both saying–and believing–that, “I am a writer. I am an author.”
Now I can say that I will be a teacher.
I am very pleased and honored to announce that I have accepted a position as a Creative Arts instructor at Haywood Community College in NC in their continuing education program.
My first class–Creative Fiction Writing–begins January 11th. I was going to extend an invitation to anyone who was interested to consider joining my class but I can’t. It’s already full. I can tell you that I will hopefully be teaching a class in suspense writing this spring. Look for it.
Haywood is a local educational leader focusing on lifelong student learning. Keep an eye on their schedule and if you see a class that interests you then jump on in!
Onward!
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