So, lots going on so far! I've begun my senior year, and with it comes the fast approach of the end of my schooling career. And as I pelt to the finish line, I have many things on my plate to achieve and attend. This Friday, October 14 from 4 to 8 PM at the Muse Arts Warehouse, is the launch party for the District's newest issue "Night and Day" in which I have a poem and short story published. If you can make it, you should come check it out, I'll be reading some of my work during the party.
Also this weekend, part of my family is coming to visit, which makes me a very happy daughter, because even in my awesome new place with my awesome new roommates, I can get a little homesick. And then, the very next weekend, I'll have another visitor, my boyfriend Aaron, to celebrate our five year anniversary. I know, sappy sappy lovey dovey, but it makes me so very happy.
Also, for previous viewers, you'll notice a complete overhaul of the website. I've moved to a different theme, one with bigger pictures and more purple. I'll be uploading more portfolio pieces more frequently, and keeping up with the blog, since there will many photo opportunities in the upcoming month, including Halloween costumes. Mine? Here's a hint - steampunk. Please check out the site, and leave your comments, I love to hear them.

This Thursday evening, 6 PM at Arnold Hall, there will be a reading celebrating the release of this year's Artemis. For those who don't know, Artemis is SCAD's student literary magazine, which has poetry, fiction, non fiction and playwriting. Those who get in get the chance to read a selection of their accepted work, and I will be reading a few poems that got in. I hope you all get a chance to come and listen to some really good work from your fellow SCADdies. Thursday, 6 PM, Arnold Hall.

As part of my Poetry III class, it's my job not to just write poetry, but read it too. I found this today in a wonderful poetry collection called "Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times". It's called "The Journey" by Mary Oliver, quickly becoming one of my favorite poets:

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice - 
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You know what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do -
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Isn't she absolutely the greatest? With such simple words, she tells you a story of an awakening self-journey. I think she proves you don't have to be in an extreme of happiness or sadness for a poem to impact you, if you let it.