Friday Five

1. I have one paper standing between me and summer. Well, and the whole packing thing that has to happen. I'm going down south for two weeks before coming back up here to move into the pretty, pretty apartment. I'll keep you all updated though. Suffice it to say, writing this paper is really hard, guys.

2. Last night my MFA classmates and I had our final mentorship readings. I read from Ghost Light, the manuscript I worked on with my mentor this semester. It went really well. Interestingly, trends don't just happen in publishing. They happen in confined spaces. We didn't have classes together this year, and yet there was a definite pattern of ghost stories in our works. Also foxes.

3. A week ago, I volunteered at the Federation for Children with Special Needs annual gala. I've done various things for the Federation over the two years I've been in Boston--mostly social media--but I came in helping to organize the silent auction for the gala. One thing I thought about this year while I was there, was the way in which advocating for someone (a child) is different than advocating for yourself. Not only is the terminology different. The way of seeing the world. When you've grown up with a disability, you don't have anything to compare it to, and that's different from the narrative one usually hears from parents. Not good-or-bad, just different.

4. Tuesday, I signed the papers for my summer job. I'm super oh-my-goodness excited about it, and about working in downtown Boston. Some of it can be sketchy at times (where isn't?) but the office is a block from the Common, which is lovely in summer time!

5. A piece of my childhood. I got introduced to The Brady Bunch during this summer of Brady, and occasionally still get this song stuck in my cerebral jukebox (it's a scary place)

Just So You Know

I'm applying for a Rhodes scholarship. It's kind of a lark, because I have not dewormed cats in the Congo so would never get it, but I'm still a tad hopeful that I'll get an interview.

My problem, while obsessively writing and rewriting my personal statement, has been the fact that the Rhodes has a specification that applicants be "able to lead the vigorous life" that will lead to being an asset to the international community.

Did I mention that my line of narrative for my statement has to do with disability disclosure?

Reasonably I know that i have already shown the ability to handle a vigorous lifestyle with the backpacking and the refusual to let my disabiltiy get in the way. Part of me wishes though that I was still acting under the "tell them later" philosophy instead of writing a statement about why I no longer do that.

Then, if my disability is a reason for my not being considered it just shows what I am traveling to demonstrate and writing against anyway.