WIP's

I've been so neglectful of this space and I know why. My life, for the last year has been fairly uninteresting, meaning that I haven't really had any major changes. Usually, when life feels calm, I have little to say to the internets, my feeling being that the people I love and know are around to hear most of what I need to say so why post it online?

Well, now there's some news. After nearly three years in Iowa City, I'll be leaving at the end of July to take up a post teaching English on the East Coast. Home at last. But this change does lead me to think about my time here in Iowa. Although I'm leaving, I realize that my connection to this place is a lot like some of my knitting projects, the ones I start and will probably never get around to finishing, on Ravelry, they call them WIPs (Works in Progress), I'll never quite be done with Iowa City.

I came here to write, which I did, maybe less than some but more than I could have hoped to accomplish in New York.

I cam here having fallen out of love. While I was here, I fell in love. Fell out of love. Fell back in love, with myself. Fell in love with writing. Fell out of love with writing. Fell even further out of love with writing, only to get close to the end and fall back in love with my writing. Can you say DRAMA? I can. I also realized that you never really fall out of love, you just move on and discover new (and hopefully) more fulfilling love (I know, it kind of sucks but really it's kind of awesome).

I learned to live alone. Learned that I love living alone, learned that I should probably learn to live with others.

I learned to knit (a skill I will always treasure).

I learned to drink whiskey (a skill I will always treasure and a skill I'm sure I'll regret time and time again).

I learned how to be a teacher. I even wrote (for a failed job application) a statement of my educational philosophy from where I got this gem of a line: "What I learned about the classroom environment at Sarah Lawrence is the very thing I try to make the foundation of my classes at Iowa: that while we have university-designated roles—teacher and student—we are all learners."

I learned to knit a cardigan. A freaking cardigan.

I learned more about friendship that I ever did before. Taking those failed friendships in New York, the friendships that are still so dear to me from the time I live in NYC, and the amazing people I connected with here in Iowa, I learned what it mean to have a friend and to be a friend.

I learned how to be a writer from some really good teachers. And I hope I can pass this on to other young writers I will encounter in my future.

I learned that even though you will continue to lose the ones you love, life goes on.

In all these sentences, I used the past tense when really, I should have used the present. Like the unfinished baby blanket, the socks that have no mates, and well, the cardigan (it's missing a sleeve) I'm a work in progress. I'm hoping the finished product will be last long and look awesome.