MFA Retrospective

I should be going to commencement today, but instead, here's a slide show for you:

We all know that the official MFA stuff has been good for me, the learning to write good poems, finding my "voice," etc. But what's been really great for me these past three years are the people.

It all started when Mary told those of us in her first NEOMFA workshop about Winter Wheat. Jay, Emily, Dawson, Aaron and I piled into Jay's van and started driving...except we realized none of us had directions. That was the beginning. We'd never really hung out before, but from that point on, we were "the A team." We struck fear in the hearts of any prof who had more than three of us in the same class. And that's when Aaron became "Uncle A"--that weird guy who always shows up at family reunions but you're not sure who he's related to.

That summer, a bunch of us went to Put-In-Bay (an island on lake Erie for you non-Ohioans). Jay was in China, so the A-team was incomplete, but we made up for it with a few new additions. 8 a.m. Bloody Marys and World Cup soccer at Frosty's, late night Cranium, enough food to feed the whole island in our tiny little rental house (complete with crack spoon and dirty grilling utencils). The best part was when we were in a packed bar and every single person drunkenly sang along with "Don't Stop Believin'" on the juke box. If I could have figured out how to add music to my slideshow, that would be playing in the background. It is my official MFA theme song.

Of course there was AWP and Winter Wheat Rounds 2 & 3, and Bisbee (amazing!) but we had some fun on our own turf, too. Y-town nights at Inner Circle, Mindi dominating the juke box with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. Kent nights at the Venice where we ate 3 bags of free chips each. Akron nights at Pints! where we spend most of the time outside, smoking, while Frank watches our drinks (poor Frank, he should start smoking!)

And the car pooling. Jay and I added it up last summer and over the two years we carpooled together, we spent 180 hours in a car together. Sometimes Jana was there, driving like a crazy woman, or Emily, or Kristina, but usually it was just me and Jay, signing along to Ace of Bace, arguing about strip clubs and dating and the meaning of life. He's the brother I never wanted. There was the shouting match in Atlanta when we were hungry and tired and both on our cell phones about a block away from each other but couldn't figure out where we were going to meet for dinner. The first day of class after we got back from Bisbee and wanted to kill each other. Some how, these fights are some of my fondest memories of Jay...but nothing is better than the nights that I was DD and he spent the whole ride home poking my arm and saying "Listen T, just listen."

And Jennifer, who I wish I would have gotten to know so long ago...how you saved me from insanity in Bisbee, and how you've become one of my closest friends since we got home.

Anthony, the crazy, irrevernt poet from Cleveland, who makes the best 3am paninis. And his sweet dog Onyx.

Jana, who keeps a cooler of cheese, wasabi peas, and sparkling cider in her van at all times, just in case a bunch of drunk poets want munchies after the bars close. Jana, who always has something to say, and thank God, or I might have kept writing poems that rhymed.

Craig, kicking our chairs and pushing us to think harder than we've ever thought before...then taking us out for pitchers after. The farm, Karla, my equine friend Banjo, long talks on the front porch while swatting mosquitos.

And we can't forget Sweet Mary B., thesis advisor, personal cheerleader, and wonderful friend. Would I have made it through without you?

So many more...if I wrote about everyone, I'd be here all day. Jessica, Lindsay, Amy, John, Eric, Toby, Rick, Steve, Kelly, Mona, Tim, Cathy...how can I say what these people have come to mean to me? I've never felt so much a part of something. Not the first class to graduate, but close enough. The NEOMFA won't be the same without us, and I won't be the same without them.

There, the sappy post I've been promising. Good-bye MFA, I'll miss you.