As I have promised, here is the second half of the (Who da wild?) IDYLLWILD! First Year Journey for 2014. The real journey began on Thursday morning. It began with chaos. There were several FYJs all trying to leave at the same time, some people naturally showed up late, others (like me) couldn’t find their wallets/driver licenses, etc. After a sprint back to Brockton and a scarfed down breakfast, we were ready to roll.

Idyllwild starts out with rock climbing, which in this case means starting with Rebecca and David Lyons as our rock climbing guides, so you can’t go wrong there! Seriously though, they were a wonderful presence for our specific group of freshmen, and helped create a really strong start to the trip. It rained a little and hailed rather dramatically, but the afternoon cleared up for us to have a beautiful day of climbing. We stayed up through the afternoon, finally leaving about 4 pm to head down the treacherous topsy-turvy roads over to Idyllwild (about two hours away – yes, we were leaving later than we had intended to).  However, once dinner was ready (after another hour delay because of a stubborn pot that wouldn’t heat up and boil), people were happy with the pasta and meat, cheese and veggie dinner that we had, which was the prelude to another happy evening meeting, the first out camping.

Then we started rolling up our sleeves and sweat. And boy did we sweat! For our second full day camping, we took on Devil’s Slide hike, and crushed it in about an hour and a half. This is a 2.5 mile hike up several thousand feet. But as I keep saying, what the most remarkable thing about it was the group’s self-awareness. This hour and a half wasn’t that of the caterpillar effect. It was a solid group hiking together, the leaders consciously and constantly checking to make sure the group was all together. I have never seen a group do that without one, being asked to do that, and two do that on the first try. Kudos to them. Highlights from the day included the Tahquitz Peak, Sugary Tortillas, and Saturn’s Rings.

The next two days were back country days, and this is where the intensity of the trip came in. The first day, we managed to arrive at our site, Strawberry Junction, no problem. It took us longer than we expected it to, given the pace we had just hiked the day before up Devil’s Slide, but secretly I wasn’t at all surprised that the group subconsciously took a slower pace, even on a more relaxed trail. Lunch today was the classic OP SANDWICHES!!! Always a big hit with people (except maybe those who always want more meat!) I’m surprised we had planned to wait until Friday to have them.

While in the back country, we took advantage of being away from all those other noisy people, and so evening program Saturday night was Celebrity, a humorous game of trying to act out and describe celebrities, with vocabulary increasingly getting restricted. We handed out several pieces of candy to keep people happy, and when finally the game was over and it was cold, people went to bed.

Sunday morning was scheduled to do leadership activities and discussions with Hollis and Chad (our new Assistant Director). We ran through a discussion on several quotes regarding leadership, the team-building activity “the helium pole”, a discussion of the NOLS leadership quadrants and identifying yourself as a leader, and finally a fun relay game where two people can’t walk (one can see but not talk, and one can talk but not see) and one person can walk and talk, but they cannot see. Together, the three people have to accomplish a goal. Naturally this activity leads to a good discussion about leadership and communication and working together as a team.

Then we had lunch and started the hike back to the campsite. This is where things got a little intense. As it was, there were two parallel trails we could have taken: one the curved around to the north, and one that curved around to the south. Supposed to have gone to the north, we ended up going around to the south. So not only did we not get back country water where we were told we could, we ended up being quite a distance from the cars Hollis had shuttled to the campsites for us (where we were supposed to hike right into) the morning before. The worst part of all this was the lack of water, and the inability to get more because we were in the wilderness. We had one participant go into heat exhaustion, and I was very close (getting quite light-headed in the last 20 minutes of the hike or so). All of our lips got chapped due to dehydration, and it took me quite a few days of hydrating and Chap Stick to get that to go away. However, Mikayla and two others went down the trail ahead of the group and managed to flag down a ranger who helped them get to the vans so we could shuttle the group back to the site. All in all, we ended up having dinner about an hour later than we had planned, so the physical consequence was rather insignificant.

What I admired most about this group during all this stress was their ability to keep a good attitude. They had more reason to complain and be unhappy than most of the other FYJs, but they kept telling stories and joking and laughing and singing. I honestly could not be more proud of the way they handled the situation, which leads us to the evening program for Sunday and Closing Ceremony. OP’s Closing Ceremony consists of two evening programs combined into one (Tap and Spotlight). I won’t give away too many details so that it’s still a surprise for those who may go through this in the future, but it’s a great chance to fully appreciate each other, and everything we have brought to the group.

Perhaps my favorite part about extended OP trips however, is the bracelets/anklets. The way OP makes them is out of paracord. We use a different color for each year, so you can identify the specific memories behind the bracelet. You cut the cord to a comfortable diameter, and then using a lighter, you melt the two ends together and use spit to cool off the melted ends, so the bracelet is permanently stuck on your wrist or ankle. Now you have a daily reminder of both the good and the bad that happened on your trip, and not just what it cost to earn those memories, but the effort of perseverance it took to earn them. My freshman year, when I attended the High Sierras FYJ, I remember thinking that if I ever wrote a novel where the characters did this kind of thing, I would call the chapter Fire and Spit. This may not be a chapter of a novel, but it is close enough I think. I call this blog post Fire and Spit because that’s what we trip leaders use to cement the memory of our bonds and friendships.

Until Next Time,

Joe

Sometimes I imagine people wonder why I enjoy going camping so much. After all, I give up the comforts of home: no choice in A/C or heat, no dish washer, no soft bed, no computer, no internet, often times no connections to the modern world. Sometimes I wonder why myself. There are times you go hiking, you’re carrying excess weight on your back, you’re sweating, you’re dehydrated and have no water left, and the end is nowhere in sight. There are times you get reduced to tears from stress, and there are other times you feel the acidic stab of being away from home.

To be honest, I don’t go camping because sometimes I go days without cleaning out my Tupperware I eat out of, or that I am often forced to drink water that leaves a sour after taste in my mouth. These things happen nearly every time, but they are not the things that I remember. What I remember are the moments (or even minutes) of laughter that seem like they will never end. I remember the pleasure of hearing others’ life stories and discovering the common connections we have. I remember the evenings of expressing our gratitude of our newfound friendship. In short, I remember the people.  The people are what make it worth it. The wide smiles, the sharp laughs, the witty sense of humor shared.

A couple days ago I came back from leading my first ever First Year Journey (FYJ). The anticipation leading up to the event was tremendous, and had been building up ever since April 2014. And now it’s done, in just a matter of 5 days. In the anticipation however, I found myself reflecting on my experience as an FYJ’er my freshman year, and remembering how absolutely fantastic the experience was, and how badly I wanted to make sure that these new freshmen got the same positive experience that I had received. In reflection, I have realized that if possible, I had an even more positive experience than my freshman year, and that is saying A LOT! It has been my privilege and honor to lead this truly wonderful group of thirteen freshmen, and I sincerely look forward to spending more time with them when I come back to campus in the Spring.

The rest of the discussion however, will be a reflection of what happened over the course of those five days that these people met, and how the group came to develop such a close bond.

Wednesday was the first day we were all together, and from a trip leader’s perspective, there was remarkably little we had to facilitate to bring the group together. Virtually nothing. The morning was filled with the boring logistical details of the trip, followed by two rather amusing games: Ninja and Wha!. It was Wha! that I felt like really broke down the barriers. It was so ridiculous and loud, and helped people realize that it was ok to be ridiculous and loud, that suddenly the group felt much more comfortable together. This made the rest of the day easy: the pack explosion to go over their gear, the group-wide initiatives, and finally the day’s closing evening meeting.

I was particularly happy with the way evening meeting was introduced for this particular group: no introduction, no warning, just the mysterious touching of the pinkies! After accepting the weirdness of this tradition, the group embraced it whole-heartedly for the duration of the trip, and I expect for the duration of their experience with Outdoor Programs the next four years. Evening program that night was Hopes and Fears in a Hat, which the group discussed admirably, and I firmly believed help set the serious undertones of the trip really well.

And that was day one! The next post will cover both the rest of the trip, and why the unusual title, Fire and Spit.

Until Next Time,

Joe

For those who have been hoping for a glimpse of the novel, I present to you a small snippet. It is not of the story itself, but of a short story that is shared within the novel between two characters.

Once upon a time, there was a young boy who was almost five years old, who lived with his mom and dad. They were a happy family, until one night the boy started getting nightmares every night. After a week of the boy waking up in the middle of the night crying in fear, his parents took him to the doctor. But he couldn’t see anything wrong with the boy. So, on the way home, the boy’s parents stopped and bought him a teddy bear. This teddy bear was big and fluffy, had thick brown fur and velvety paws, and a big red ribbon tied around his neck. He also had big brown eyes, and a wide smile, the kind that cheers you up every time you look at it.

That night, the father told the boy, “Before you go to sleep, talk to the bear. Tell him what it is that you are afraid of, and give him a hug. Then you won’t be afraid anymore.” And so the boy did. That night, before he closed his eyes to go to sleep, he whispered in the bear’s ear “I’m afraid of the dark.” And it worked. The boy slept through the night, without a single bad dream. His father also told him that the magic would only work if he spoke to the bear every night. And so the boy did. Every night the boy whispered into the bear’s ear and told him what he was afraid of. Some nights it was the dark, and other nights it was the monster in his closet. Night after night, year after year, the boy whispered to his teddy bear.

As the years passed, the bear started showing signs of being well-loved: his fur grew matted and patches started growing. His ribbon became a tattered shred and soon both of his eyes rubbed blank. But his smile stayed just as wide.

Eventually the boy grew up. He finished school and got a job. And still he gave his bear a whisper and a hug every night. Then the boy had a girlfriend who he fell in love with, who made him happier than anyone had ever before. And though the boy no longer hugged the bear through the night, he kept the bear in a closet so he could whisper to him and give him a hug before turning in. The night before the boy married his girlfriend he whispered to the bear, “I’m afraid that tomorrow won’t be perfect.” And this night, barely more than a pile of tattered fabric with a wide smile, the bear spoke back. “You’re ready to let me go.” “But I love you,” the boy said. “You are grown up now. You are on your way out of childhood,” the bear said. “And now, it’s time to love your wife. Every night, you must tell her something that you love about her. And give her a hug. And when you have children of your own, you must buy them a new teddy bear so they can whisper their fears and learn to love, just as you have.”

I hope you enjoyed it!

Until Next Time,

Joe

If you were expecting an excerpt of the novel, I’m sorry to say that I’ll have to disappoint you. Here are my reflections on writing the novel.

It is universally known, if not necessarily accepted, that all things must inevitably come to an end. This extends to summer breaks, book series (Harry Potter anyone?), life, and yes, even the writing of a novel. I begin writing this post in the face of concluding my first legitimate novel. It is a weird feeling to be sure, having something that has dominated my waking thoughts since June 11, to be so close to being finished.

My goal for a full and complete novel has been 80,000 words, making slightly over 70,000 ideal for a first draft, knowing that I want to completely redo the beginning of the novel. But enough about numbers.

— 8/6/14

After all, numbers don’t’ make up the creation of a novel. Hard work, perseverance, sweat… these make up the creation of a novel. As do tears, writer’s block, frustration, and at times – sheer laziness. Certainly there have been days I have struggled to write. Indeed, some days I didn’t write a word. And other days, I wrote 6,000 words over the course of just a few hours (roughly 21 pages). I remember sitting down when I first started writing and trying to figure out if I would be able to finish the novel over the summer. And now, here I am days from finishing a week ahead of schedule.

Now these days I find myself allowing my mind to wander and start thinking about how I’m going to revise this novel, what changes I’m going to make to make it much better, and whether or not it will be any easier to follow through on, than writing the first draft has been.

— 8/7/14

I write to finish this post, now that I have finished the novel. It’s kind of a funny story how it had happened. I’d spent pretty much all day writing and finally it came to the late evening, and being utterly word weary, I took a break to watch a movie between writing the last chapter and the Epilogue. When I came back to my computer, I finally realized how exhausted I was. Thinking about the Epilogue I planned to write, I realized that I really didn’t like it. The ending I had written was so perfect, and I didn’t want the reader to be left with something less fitting. Words from one of my favorite authors, Rick Riordan, came floating back to me: epilogues take away from the readers’ imaginations. So, I decided to end it at the last chapter, which meant, I finished the novel two hours before I thought I was going to, and I hadn’t even realized it at the time.

Now I can sit back and sigh with relief. I have finished the novel. I have written from start to finish probably more than a dozen works:  some of them short stories, several of them novellas and two of them novels. None of them have seemed so tangible to me as this latest novel. I fully intend to run all the way with this one before my next project:  I intend to publish it. At times it has seemed daunting, but having finished perhaps the biggest single step in publishing a novel, it makes it easier to remember that all things come to an end. Even the writing of a novel.

— 8/11/14

Until Next Time,

Joe

This summer I had the opportunity to watch two of Disney’s newer movies: Frozen and Maleficent. Both were quite good, I thought, and while Frozen certainly mocked a lot of traits considered standard for Disney, Maleficent was much more provocative as a whole.

Frozen was certainly filled with its share of funny characters, jokes and romance, but it also had a number of messages. Disney is often the target of criticism from feminist and racial activists, but as other point out, it also has its share of positive movies as well. What makes Disney’s move different in this movie than those other ones is that the main characters are two women, and the overarching message has nothing to do with earning men. They also make commentary about falling in love too quickly and while this may not be unique to Disney movies, it is the only one I am aware of that so obviously mocks it while at the same time intentionally trying to mislead you.

For me however, my favorite part is regarding the ending. SPOILER ALERT. I found myself expecting Elsa to be the one to lift the ice curse, the reasoning in my head being that this was a story about two sister and them having to overcome this frozen block standing between them, pun intended. I would have been bitterly disappointed if that hadn’t been the ending, but rather Prince Charming come to save the day. To me, with the alternative being to empower two females, that would have been the height of misogyny and sexism. This leads me to believe that the celebration for the progressiveness of this movie shouldn’t be that it’s the first positive movie by Disney (because it’s not) but that this movie is as progressive as it is when the alternative was to send remarkably bad messages.

My one criticism of the story line is the lesson Elsa has to learn to control her powers (SPOILER ALERT), which is she needs to learn to love. To me, this doesn’t seem to be something she needs to learn. We already have plenty of evidence that she loves, because she shuts herself away to protect her sister, because she is scared of hurting her. To me, it would make much more sense for her to have to learn to get over fear. She’s afraid of her powers, she’s afraid of hurting her sister, and so it makes much more sense for her to learn to get over that incapacitating fear. It seems much more empowering to me, at any rate, than learning to love, which she can already do.

As for Maleficent, I probably enjoyed the movie even more than Frozen. After accepting that the movie is more than simply a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story line (SPOILER ALERT) and that they give Maleficent a happy and empowering ending, I quite enjoyed the movie , and again, for being Disney, I thought was quite progressive. The important act of love in this movie was, I thought, not surprising, but less predictable throughout the movie, leaving me to wonder up until the moment whether or not they would actually go for the risk (Also not being sure if it was a retelling of the story from Maleficent’s point of view or a new story with the same characters).

The one other thing I want to say about the movie is actually in regard to an article about it. In this article, the writer is commenting how rape is so prevalent in our culture that it has blatantly been put into a Disney movie (SPOILER ALERT: the scene which she is referring to is the aftermath of Maleficent being drugged by an apparent lover and waking up with her wings cut off). Now I’m not sure if she was criticizing or commenting or what specifically she was addressing. 1) Was she saying the scene made her uncomfortable? 2) Was “even in Disney” referring to it shouldn’t be seen by kids?

I will, therefore, address both of these questions. The first that it is uncomfortable. My response: GOOD! If it wasn’t, I’d be alarmed. Now, if her suggestion is that it shouldn’t be in the movie, I’m much less ok with that. As a writer, I like to think I support art in all its forms. And sometimes art is provocative or emotionally powerful, though not necessarily happy. And yes, sometimes that makes us uncomfortable. I, for one, however, thought Angelina Jolie’s acting was powerful and convincing, and portrayed the emotion of the situation superbly. If we begin to suggest that scenes should be left out for the sake of comfort, that begins to sound dangerously close to censorship, which in regards to art, I am absolutely intolerant of.

This leads me to the second question, of whether this writer was suggesting that Disney should be more children oriented, I also disagree with that. Sure, certainly the animated films are generally for children, but not everything they make is. I wouldn’t suggest the Curse of the Black Pearl to four year olds after all. So while Maleficent does use the characters and the story line of a children’s animated movie, why does this version have to be as well? Censorship for the sake of comfort or for protection (of youth/innocence) is dangerously close to being one and the same: unacceptable, and should be regarded with great skepticism and suspicion.

In any regard, I personally felt the movie had a sharp edge to it with great acting. I thought it was engaging, moving and powerful. It was deliciously dark, and really shows the horror that overpowers one’s mind after facing such events. I thought the emotion was the selling point to the movie, and it shouldn’t be downplayed or removed. It should be emphasized. Celebrated. It should be used to give art its beautiful, if dark edge.

Until Next Time,

Joe

In mid-March this year, we tried something now: a trip combining 2 campus organizations. Having been an OP participant from the very beginning (FYJ) and a PRIDE club member from the start of freshman year, I tried combining the two. I decided to offer my trip leading experience to the club and offer a camping trip to the members.

So the weekend after Spring Break we went up to Bearpaw Reserve to spend some time together outside of the PRIDE club room. The trip was fairly short, but we fit quite a bit in. We had a campfire that night and we made s’mores, we did the Evening Program of “Masks” which led to a fantastic discussion of the realities facing the LGBTQ+ community and on Saturday we got to go on a hike.

The trip wasn’t as LGBTQ+ oriented as I thought it was going to be, but walking away from the experience, I realized that perhaps that wasn’t the point, but rather just to get club members together hanging out in a time and place that wasn’t at the weekly meeting. Having had the opportunity to talk to people after the trip, it was a positive experience, which was just the right length, and for being a pilot trip, really could not have gone better.

Until Next Time,

Joe

The Opera

Perhaps the most notable experience of our literature course spring semester was our two trips to the LA Opera, one in February and one in March, both trips were to the same opera: Billy Budd. In February we attended the Tech Rehearsal and got to see them slowly work through the first act. It sent me back to my senior year in high school and the tech week for Beauty and the Beast. It was actually more enjoyable to be on the other end than I had thought it was going to be, likely because I had been through that and could appreciate the memories. Afterwards (the two drivers were myself and the other OP Trip Leader in our class) we drove back to campus, stopping at In-N-Out along the way.

Our trip in March however was even more exciting if for no other reason that it was a performance night. We stopped for dinner first at this Asian restaurant, which was quite good. Then we made our way to the Opera House. We dropped everyone off at the front while we spent the next 30 minutes looking for parking. We finally made it in shortly before the Opera started.

Billy Budd (the opera) is credited to Benjamin Britten (the novella being an unfinished novel by Herman Melville, which we read in class). The opera is written in English, though the way it is sung you’d never be able to guess. When we were there for the Tech Rehsearsal, we only got to see the first act. And as it turns out, I was quite glad forthat. The second act has all the action, and the set did things we had no idea it could do the first time we went. The whole stage (of the set) was able to rise about 10 feet into the air, pivoting on its back point. The ending was also much more aggressive than it is usually portrayed as in other variations of the opera.

My favorite scene was at the end when you get to see the main character come out as an old man and stand at attention to the audience while the final, violent actions happen behind him, clearly a memory of his, while poignant music is playing from the orchestra.

Aside from it being my first night out at the opera, the dressing up, the dinner, bringing a friend not in the program with me is what made it fun and worth attending.

The Symposium

The other big event for our honors program this spring was the sophomore symposium at the end of the semester. There’s not too much to say about it, but it was an interesting event. We all wrote three 5 page papers for the class (not counting the 20 page term paper) and we had to select one of them to revise and present to the general public (basically whoever wanted to show up and surprisingly we filled up the room).

I ended up presenting my final paper at the symposium, which was about the imprecision of language and the inherent flaw of language, using the historical account “This Republic of Suffering” by Drew Gilpin Faust and the novella “Billy Budd, Sailor” by Herman Melville.

What made the event marginally more exciting for me was that I was one of the two moderators for the second half. After attending the event, I found that the theory of the event was much more exciting than the practice of it. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for the people, especially the students, who had no idea really what any of us were talking about. However, I would be lying if I said it isn’t a little cool to say that I have now presented a paper at an academic symposium.

Until Next Time,

Joe

I had been waiting for this trip to go out since August 2012, when we received the syllabus for our First Year Seminar that said we were going out head out to Death Valley for our November camp out. It was supposed to be our service trip for the semester, restoring butterfly habitats. As it ended up, that weekend was the Grand Re-opening of a building, and so were pulling all their employees to help with that. We were offered traffic directing and trash pick-up as service instead, which our professor, Andrew Hollis, naturally turned down. Instead, we slept on campus that night, and went to Idyllwild the next night.

I then considered a Spring Break trip as an apprentice, but wanted to do WFR. So when I peer advised for the FYS, I hoped I might get a second shot at Death Valley, but Hollis decided to do Red Rock Canyon (NV) instead, so we could go rock climbing. So then I thought for sure I would do it for Spring Break. But I struggled with interest within the Trip Leader community and then again in the student body. But we got enough sign-ups in the last minute by extending our deadline by one school day.

The trip was 2 nights, 3 days. The great part from a Trip Leader’s stand point was that 4 of the 5 participants had never seen on an OP Trip, so we had a lot of wiggle room to make either a phenomenal impression, or a terrible one.

The trip itself might have been short, but we had a ton packed in over the course of 3 days. The first day, other than missing our exit on the highway forcing us to drive an extra 3 hours, we got to see Zabriskie Point. Zabriskie Point was particularly rewarding. After spending all that extra time in the cars, we really needed something to boost morale, and this stop was it. Aside from stretching our legs, it offered a chance for some pictures and scrambling. The golden rocks were really quite remarkable and the mountains in the distance looked like scoops of ice cream smushed together. According to our Trip Leader apprentice, we were really lucky it had rained the past 3 days, because the colors were much more vivid than when she had last come, since all the desert dust was washed off.

Then it was time to wrap up the day and head over to the campsite and make dinner. This ended up being a cool experience, because a couple of the guys had never helped out in a kitchen before and so they were super excited to help prepare the food they were going to eat later. They were also eager to help out with the cleaning. That was nice. J

The next day was our big day, and unfortunately our only full day for the trip. WE had planned a fairly intense 4-4.5 mile hike (total of 8-9 miles) up to Wildrose Peak. After an hour long drive up to the trail head, we had the opportunity to check out the Charcoal Kilns, a long row of impressive stone domes you can walk inside of, before the hike. The hike itself was interesting. It took about 3 hours to get up, and at one point we were hiking through snow that was about knee deep. It was a tough hike, but the group was determined to reach the peak (Wildrose Peak). On the way back down, it was really cool to see all the participants helping each other down the slippery snow. The hike down was only about 2 hours (maybe a little more) and we were all glad to reach the van and sit down.

Our next stop was the Artist’s Palette. For the most part this was just a drive through, but there was a point to stop, get out and walk around. Whereas Zabriskie Point was mostly gold, brown, and white, there were more colors here including some greens and rusty red. Another positive point for the trip leaders. We were racing time a little to get there before the sun set behind the mountains (way earlier than actual sunset unfortunately). But we made it, enjoying the colors in the last few minutes of light. Then we continued the Artist’s Palette drive through a twisty and at times somewhat tight canyon. We were making one last stop before going back to the campsite, which was to Badwater Basin, the lowest geological point in the U.S. It was a little crazy. By the time we got there it was pretty much empty. The moon was out, and so we enjoyed a nice moonlit stroll through the lowest valley in the U.S. Fortunately it was nice and cool that time of night and year. While we were walking around, we could see all the salt coating the ground, the last sign that there had been an ocean where the valley was now (or any water for that matter).

The last day of the trip was probably my favorite. We only had one big thing planned, and that was to go see the Mesquit Sand Dunes. We, however, had a secret weapon with us: boogie boards. We spent about an hour and a half sledding down the sand dunes. It was probably some of the most fun I’ve had on an OP Trip. After that we let people explore Golden Canyon on the way out before we sat down for one last lunch. The three trip leaders got together to discuss what went well and what could have gone better and to congratulate ourselves for a trip that went extraordinarily well.

Until Next Time,

Joe

(Zabriskie Point)                                                                           (Wildrose Peak)

(Artist’s Palette)                                                                          (Mesquite Sand Dunes)

I have taken a bit of a departure from my spring semester adventures, I will do my best to wrap them up here in the next couple weeks before I leave for FYJ and Study Abroad.  This particular post is about the third and final event of the Visiting Writers’ Series spring semester.

Like last year, these works (the senior capstones) were amazing to listen to. Most of the speakers present their work professionally, one senior even humorously bringing up a glass of water to sip from, even though he was only going to read for five minutes (every writer who has ever presented that I have seen has had a bottle of water with them).

On one level it was intimidating to listen to the projects, knowing that someday I will be expected to write something of that quality. On another, it was difficult not to be impressed by the capstones. Aside from the writing itself, some of the presentations/deliveries were intense. Especially the last guy, he gave a very passionate delivery of a very intense scene. As one of my friends commented, it made sense why they chose him to go last.

The one problem with the event is there are so many writers and they have so little time, it goes so quickly that most of the event wasn’t given the time to sink in. Other than that, it’s hard to come up with something insightful about an event that I have to go see for four years.

Until Next Time,

Joe