The Life & Times of a Randolph MFA Student

We like books. A lot.

In My Nerd Era, Part Deux

*Title is an Alka Kumar original

Guys, I think I found my people.

After almost forty years, I think I finally found a place that fits. It didn’t matter what I looked like, what I sounded like, what I wore or anything. My words were all that mattered. It’s a beautiful and freeing thing.

I felt valued, for the first time since my stroke. Yes, I’ve of course felt valued by my friends and family, but this was different. I was valued in the academic sphere—something I hadn’t felt since medical school. And my academic pursuits had been my main source of pride for the first twenty-three years of my life. It was transformative to be appreciated in that way again. Valued for my work, my words, my mind.

It is such a special place with the kindest nerds ever. And the diversity of cultures was so rare and rich. I’m bursting with gratitude and love for this experience. I have way too many stories that have already cemented themselves in my mind and I have a lot of homework (yay!!) so I’ll just stick to some highlights:

Best Conversation

So there was rarely any small talk. Every conversation got really deep, really fast, which I loved. I had a dinner one of the first few nights with my fifteen person cohort. We started off discussing our favorite novels (specifically written by poets, the best novels imo) and then talked about our identities and what we wanted our writing to say. It’s like we went from introductions to ugly crying about our existence in twenty minutes. My kind of people ;)

Favorite books from conversation - Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Quote of the Week

This quote actually came out of that dinner when many discussed their identities and cultures and why they refuse to italicize non-English words in their writing. My friend D.L. said, “I insist on my existence,” and man, we all felt those words. Everyone there was a walking beautiful quote.

Best Moment

I don’t know where the confidence came from but I actually read my own writing aloud to an audience. It was just such a safe space and everyone had been so welcoming and encouraging. My writing is emotional so I read it in the second person (“you” instead of “I”) to give me some distance from the material. But as soon as I hit the last word and heard the applause, I exploded into tears. 🤦‍♀️ I am, if nothing else, an emotional powder keg but I did it!! It can only get better from here.

Favorite Food in Lynchburg

The ice cream sandwiches from Rookie’s. Oh my god. Heavenly. I miss them so much.

Song of the Week

I can’t even begin to explain how kind, brilliant and accomplished all the faculty members are because I will just gush and fan girl out. It was such an honor to meet them, learn from them, hear them do readings from their work and of course, hear them perform on karaoke night. My favorite and the crowd’s favorite was the assistant director’s rendition of Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo :)

Okay, I’m keeping this short because I feel like I’m running out of words and this nerd has to get back to her homework!

See ya in a month! ✌🏽

Yours,

Harshada