Struggle

If you’re like me, all your undertakings probably begin the same way: with low whimpers of anxiety that soon erupt into panic.

On day one, your smile is wide, your handshake firm, your notepad laden with neat lines of memos. There’s too much to take in, but that’s a typical first day, right? By the second day, it’s still too much. The third day promises no better and by day five, even the weekend seems like the comma in a long and tedious paragraph. You lie awake each night, re-imagining the day’s events, second-guessing yourself. How was my paper? How was my presentation? Did I do okay? Did I say anything stupid? Did people like me? Can I do this?

I can’t do this.

Escape becomes your next preoccupation. Like a hunted animal, your thoughts scramble from one safe hiding place to the next.

I could drop this class, I could take it next semester.

I could get another job.

I could postpone that phone call.

Meanwhile, dates and expectations and assignments and meetings crop up, snarling and snaggling and tripping you as you run: they are the thistle and vine, the serpent on her belly. The hunter with his beast.

The thing about running is that eventually you get somewhere.

Artist: Wing Yin Tang 

Slowly, you learn to break the thistle, to untangle the vine, to avoid the serpent and the hunter. To thrive in the forest.

This NPR story describes how different cultures approach the idea of struggle, and how that approach impacts success. Struggle can feel frustrating and scary, but it is a meaningful part of learning. The Writing Center is a safe place to struggle, to say “I don’t know,” to learn.

Come learn with us. 

Writing Center mom's lament

Not five minutes ago I ran into Tony, former student employee, current anesthesiologist. "You're still here," he said, "and you look exactly the same." I don't, of course, look the same, and neither does he. He used to look like a college student, and now he looks like a doctor.
He's right about one thing, though: I am still here.
That realization at first made me sad. Students pass through our tutoring centers and go on to heal the sick, comfort the elderly, and invent clean transportation. I merely stand at the doorway and wave my apron goodbye. At one time, I thought I'd do something fabulous.
On the other hand, these centers are sacred spaces. We help the go-getters learn to go and get. In the end,  I am on the team that goes to Mars by assisting with the launch. So keep studying; keep writing. We’ll continue to help.

End of Semester Rush

It’s the end of the semester, and you’re just about ready to start pulling your hair out. There are finals and papers and books to read and you can’t sleep at night because you’re so worried and you have no social life because you lock yourself away in your room trying to study and… phew! Well, there’s a lot to be done still, even with just a few days left. Just remember! – tutoring is still available for last minute checks! 

Easy reading

"Easy reading is damn hard writing."

-Nathaniel Hawthorne

Polytechnic NaNoWriMo Poems

Oh writer, how come

you think we proofread your work?

Learn punctuation.

-Amy

Your assignment is

due tomorrow? Want an ‘A’?

I am not a god.

-Amy

I don’t edit things,

my name isn’t spellcheck. So,

let’s work together.

-Cody

Two sentences. No,

commas don’t go in between.

That’s a comma splice.

-Cody

Oh my god, Amy,

you are killing me slowly;

Haikus are poison.

-Amy, from Cody’s perspective

“Corrections. Corrections, that’s all I need.”

Let me look over your paper and see…

Hint, questions, do you see it?

A missing article, a period, I see it!

You’re growing! I helped, see what can happen when we work as a team!

-Brittany

Pencil and paper meet,

The rest is simply history.

-Brittany

A computer can type it,

A tape recorder can replay it.

A memory can promise to keep it,

But only pencil and pen,

Writer and idea can consume it.

The imagination and creativity all play a

Role in the world we invent behind the

Eyes everyone sees, when they fall back

And your heart dreams.

-Brittany

Writing in 100 Years

The mechanization of the imagination –

Programmed creativity.

So reliant on the system, the machine, the robotic (superior, of course) life.

Humanity can no longer think a thought

Or write a word

Without first asking:  “Is this popular on Twitter?”

--Alyssa, West writing tutor

Wise Words