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September 4, 2008 Hello, Monster 
Here we are, on the last page of this blog series. I warned you and warned you that there was a monster at the end of this blog, but you wouldn't listen, you kept turning pages and now .... I can't look. I'll tell you about my day instead. I went to school. Isn't that bizarre? I packed up a backpack and a snack and took my schedule and notebook and pens and a marked-up map of the campus (and enough anxiety to nauseate me) and took it to school. After I parked, I went to a class. I sat down in the back and got out my notebook and, believe it or not, a professor came in and started talking. It was the weirdest thing. My name was even on the class list. I thought she might frown at me and say, "Andrea? There's no Andrea on my printout." For a couple of hours we talked about writing, and when it was done I went to the gym to pick up my shoe tag, and I actually had a student number which the gym even had on file. No one crooked their head and looked at me closely and asked me for another piece of ID. Then I wrestled with my budgetary conscience and made myself come home for lunch. Then? I did homework. There's no getting around it. I'm actually a student. I remembered a couple of things when I was in class, like: I'm good at being a student. I do my reading and participate and normally don't make a complete fool of myself. (I think my lowest grade on anything for the first degree was a B+ and during the half-Masters I got straight As.) Of course this is no reason to turn undergraduate degrees into a career path, but the imminent monster is not really scary. The money thing will continue to scare the fuck out of me because I am in general paranoid about money and allergic to debt. And at some point I'll have to graduate.... A monster for another year. In the meantime, this monster has what Frances would call "a nice smile." it is a loveable, furry old university. I'll pet its head and feed it some cookies and we'll see what happens. And you were so scared! Posted by Andrea at September 4, 2008 4:09 PM under The Supposedly Mature Student EMAIL this entry (comments fields are below this section) Comments Congrats on your first day. And that's a very cute monster. Posted by: Elizabeth at September 4, 2008 7:25 PM
I'm not scared. ;) I knew you could do it! So did any 18-year-olds hit on you yet? Ahem. Sorry, Greg. I jest. I just jest. Posted by: Kia at September 4, 2008 8:34 PM
Look at our big girl!! Back at school already!! Congratulations! Posted by: Miche at September 5, 2008 8:16 AM
Nice monster! Hooray for a good first day of school! Sit up front and center, intimidate the young un's in your classes. Posted by: liz at September 5, 2008 8:28 AM
Elizabeth, it is a Frances Original. :) Not that you all can't tell, I just have to brag a little. Posted by: Andrea
That's so exciting! Congratulations. Did Frances offer any advice on school? Posted by: Morrigan at September 5, 2008 2:17 PM
Congrats on a good first day! And that picture is adorable. Posted by: tracey at September 5, 2008 5:11 PM
Congratulations!! Posted by: Lee at September 5, 2008 5:36 PM
You're so brave! I don't start until Monday and I feel like shitting my pants every time I think of walking into class with all the young kids. I'm still in undergrad and these kids will be, oh about 18, maybe 19. Yikes! Anyway - Congrats on the good first day! Woot! Posted by: Kim at September 5, 2008 6:32 PM
Way to go Andrea!! Posted by: Sue at September 5, 2008 7:10 PM
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About Me I'm a type 1 diabetic, witch, feminist, environmentalist, writer, mother, student and print addict in Toronto, Canada. The blog has seen the birth of my daughter, her many medical adventures, my divorce and return to school. The name of the game is upheaval. Subscribe
Change is God (Octavia Butler, Parable Series) "If the writer is a socially privileged person--particularly a White or a male or both--his imagination may have to make an intense and conscious effort to realize that people who don't share his privileged status may read his work and will not share with him many attitudes and opinions that he has been allowed to believe or pretend are shared by 'everybody.' Since the belief in a privileged view of reality is no longer tenable outside privileged circles, and often not even within them, fiction written from such an assumption will make sense only to a decreasing, and increasingly reactionary, audience. Many women writing today, however, still choose the male viewpoint, finding it easier to do so than to write from the knowledge that feminine experience of reality is flatly denied by many potential readers, including the majority of critics and professors of literature, and may rouse defensive hostility and contempt. The choice, then, would seem to be between collusion and subversion; but there's no use pretending that you can get away without making a choice. Not to choose, these days, is a choice made. All fiction has ethical, political and social weight, and sometimes the works that weigh the heaviest are those apparently fluffy or escapist fictions whose authors declare themselves 'above politics,' 'just entertainers,' and so on." Ursula le Guin Email Frances! frances AT andreamcdowell DOT com You can email her mother too (that's me):
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Categories Monthly Archives The WHOYCBE Not So Secret Spoilers These links open in a new browser window. Random Writer's Quote Writing is not, alas, like riding a bicycle: it does not get easier with practice. Every time I took out a yellow legal-size pad and fountain pen, and now when I turn on the computer and stare at the blank screen, I'm petrified again: this time nothing will happen, or something will happen so ruinous as to defy repair, so safer to turn the computer back off and reread Virginia Woolf instead.... ~~ Nancy Mairs, "The Writer's Thin Skin and Faint Heart"
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The title of this blog was taken from the short story "The Language of Nna Mmoy" by Ursula le Guin in her collection, Changing Planes. I won't tell you why or how, because I want you to read the story and figure it out for yourself.
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