Back to School

I believe I've been pretty negligible with updating this thing. I really should be doing this more often though, especially since I've started taking my Creative Writing courses at UofT.

I started classes about a week ago. Right now I'm in the UofT library making full use of my temporary 30-minute free internet time while I wait for class to start. I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 7 am this morning ('ungodly' because it is Saturday) to:

1.) do the first homework I've been assigned (and subsequently failed to even do until last minute) and

2.) drive downtown early because of the out-of-the-blue TTC strike and to get a good parking spot before people wake up to realize that there is a strike.

Ah, to be a student again.

I kinda missed school while I've been doing the ol' 9-to-5. I missed coming to a class of strangers and having someone lecture me for 2 hours. Of course, I could have just stayed home for that, but these writing course topics are so much easier to listen to my dad bitch to me about doing my taxes (reminder to self: do taxes!).

So I am officially a part-time UofT student. Yeah, I have unintentionally followed in the footsteps of my dad and siblings. Ha. So far I have observed being at a university is not that much different than being in college. The people, the buildings, the atmosphere and the coffee shops are all the same. However, I don't have the anxiety of exams-to-make-or-break my academia and I'm not spending $30,000.00 on my education.

My classes have been quite awesome so far, however I do feel like I am out of my league here. Firstly, the students in my class range from different ages (about my age to 50) from different backgrounds and with different intentions of taking the course. There are financial analysts, publicists and even some published writers here. There's even a Korean who works in Finance and is taking these classes so he can learn to write stories for his children. I hate to admit it, but that is just so gosh darn cute. Despite our different backgrounds, we all seem to have that commonality of wanting to write creatively and apparently have always wanted to do so, despite our different professions.

The professors seem knowledgeable and are experienced. In the two classes I am currently taking (Intro to Creative Writing and Arts Journalism), one is a published novelist, while the other writes for publications like The Globe and Mail. The Arts Journalism professor seems like someone out of CBC Radio One, the classic music radio station. He's heavily into arts and all that fancy schmancy stuff. We should really have our classes in cafes, rather than a lecture hall in the Nursing Building because we are out of setting with this guy.

We've already begun several writing exercises and they've been pretty exciting. Back in the day, once in awhile I would get interesting assignments I would actually be excited to do. But this time, it's like, every assignment. I won't bore you with details but perhaps I will excerpt some of my work on here. Maybe.

I'm not that shy about people reading my work, but I like to think of my stuff as works in progress, so they can't 'released' yet. However, as with any other artists, it's not uncommon to believe that 'finished works' are still unfinished.

I would highly recommend these classes to other people who are interested in creative writing, even if it's just for fun. In fact, you might not even realize you're a great writer until you try [writing]. Whether you're a banker, paralegal, stripper or a Senator, there could be a hidden talent for story-telling that has yet to be unearthed.