This class was the first graduate level class I've taken and a wild foray into a whole heap of artistic mediums. I had taken classes with David Shields before, and he had previously invited me to join his graduate level workshop. I hadn't been able to fit it in my schedule last year when he asked, but emailed him again this year to see if the chance was still available. He said it was, and thus began my foray in analyzing documentary film techniques for strategies on writing self-reflexive personal essays.
My final project for this class was one of the first times I turned the camera in towards myself overtly in my work. I had written from personal experience before, but always under the guise of fiction. Writing this essay, titled "Everything Stays," was a frighteningly vulnerable and yet simultaneously thrilling process of taking all the thoughts constantly swirling inside my head - a recent breakup, upcoming college graduation, everything I was leaving behind from childhood as I moved ever-onward towards being a fully realized adult - and putting them into words on a page. Though I think the essay still needs some tweaks, I'm excited about where it's headed, and with the motivational feedback I received during workshop, I'm excited to move forward with the piece and start looking for homes for potential publication for it as the quarter concludes. Pictured below are a "sneak peek" excerpt from my essay, and one of the quotes I used as inspiration that was braided into the final version.
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