WRITER. EDUCATOR. (MESSY) HUMAN.
The thing about nowis we all know that nowis all we’ve got. But, honestly, nowis never enough. Is it? Even now,as I lay here, I worry that nowI won’t appreciate now. Everyone talks about now,talks about how nowisn’t as noble as nowused to be. How nowis wasted on youth. How nowwe don’t respect now. We’re […]
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My professor told me my poem was too neat. She told me she wanted to take it and shake it loose. “Do you have control issues?” she asked. “Most definitely.” I’m nothing if not self-aware. My entire life has been about gaining and losing control. It’s why I get so much pleasure out of re-alphabetizing my bookshelf (see above). It’s why […]
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The world is small. Sometimes too small. This makes dating hard awkward. Getting your nails done will make you (momentarily) feel like you’ve got your shit together. Everyone is innately selfish. Don’t take things personally. Coffee brings people together more than any religion ever will. My dog knows me better than anyone else. Forgiving and forgetting isn’t a part of […]
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I’ve taken fiction and creative nonfiction workshops in the past, so I assumed a poetry workshop would be easy in comparison. No word count minimum for workshop pieces? Sweet. Shorter reading assignments and written responses? Sign me up. Well, guys, I was wrong. Writing a good poem is really, really hard. When I sat […]
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One of my stumbling blocks as a writer/partner/friend/human-on-this-planet is my inability to handle a situation when my expectations don’t match my reality. You know in (500) Days of Summer when Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character) fantasizes about certain situations only to be punched in the gut by reality? Yeah, that’s me. On the daily. I’m constantly creating these expected scenarios […]
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Emily Abigail Schalk 