It is my third week of classes and my inbox is overflowing. Readings and fundraisers, gatherings and conferences and a title for a tumblr that is yet to be decided. I love my cohort, their ideas and enthusiasms but I have to make choices.
If I was to participate in everything, if I was to even read all of the emails I've received I wouldn't be able to focus on my schoolwork - primary, or my project - second primary. I also need to get a job.
I interviewed for the position of assistant teaching artist with a youth org yesterday. They asked me about Raw Fiction. Somehow, my stock answer got caught in my throat and I felt a little bit nervous. It's always strange to define Raw Fiction, at once so abstract yet a concrete collaborative action that happened. And will happen again. To define Raw Fiction is as hard for me as it is to tell people about myself. Perhaps because Raw Fiction is me, but simultaneously I have no control over what will happen to it as the world witnesses, manipulates (positively) and interprets it, so Raw Fiction is malleable. As am I. Ha, that would be a funny thing to say in an interview.
This is just a quick post, to clarify for myself, and encourage anyone else who might be feeling pulled in too many exciting directions, that self-preservations relies on knowing one's own limits and being able to stay within them.
My limits are full time grad school, Raw Fiction planning and part-time job. If I get one that I can enjoy and learn from. If not then I can just put extra energy into school. We are here to learn: raw: read and write.
I know your dilemma. It took me 6 months to clearly define my P.A.C.T. for Learning in two succinct sentences from the first time I began to promote it.
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