**Squeeze**

Song: Non-stop x Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton

I've noticed that this has become a pattern. I'm steady blogging at the beginning of a semester and then about week two I am thrown into the chaos of academia and the literary/creative writing communities and I become a hermit from everything including this blog. So, I apologize for anyone who might check or read this, though I don't know who you are.

So I'm going to squeeze in a post as I watch Selma, let my nails dry, and ignore the work that I should be doing, which includes a brand new 10-15 page essay, revisions, reading 3 books, and grading papers. Also, I'm sick...due to exhaustion...from last week. It's spring break, well, the last day of spring break. Anyways, what do I have to say:

Teaching is hard. Something I knew already, but am being reminded of as I teach first-year undergraduate students and try to make writing a paper interesting. For some it's working, for others, it's not.

I've begun this new habit of procrastinating where I write new essays instead of revising the essays that are steadily piling up in my documents/onedrive folders. BUT over this spring break, I have pushed the submit button a few times, so that's something to be proud of because I was certainly slacking in the submission and publication areas ever since I started in graduate school. *hold on, Selma just got very intense* So, I submitted to a few publications that interest me, and I also revised one of my essays from last semester, so I'm working on it. Hopefully during the summer, I'll have more of a mind towards revising my work instead of producing more as a way to ignore it.

**OH. BY THE WAY. IN THAT KANYE POST, THAT IS NOT FUTURE ON HIGHLIGHTS.

What else? Oh, the class list for next semester is mouthwatering. Hopefully I get all of the nonfiction classes that I want, if so, my work production (I assume) will sky rocket in the fall, just in time to apply for grants and scholarships.

I've been trying to work on my personal brand. I intend on creating a website that will have access to my portfolio, resume, and published works, as well as blog posts. What do people think about Tumblr as a platform for a professional portfolio? The circulation and audience options are great, but I feel like a lot of people look down on Tumblr due to the community (which is great, but not too professional) that it represents... Also business cards? I'm working on a design, but since I'm not the best drawer (is that a word?) I'm not sure I can really design a business card for myself. *How come no one told me how good Selma was, like I knew, but still...it is so good! I would have been a wreck if I saw this in theaters (which I was supposed to, but that's a bitter story I won't get into).*

I'm "looking" for a job because I can't continue to be unemployed over the summer, I will be bored out of my mind. I need need need need need need a job.

Got my first byline! Newcity lit, check it out here: http://lit.newcity.com/2016/03/18/cave-canem-fellow-puts-poetry-first-always/

Also (I know I'm late, but): obsessed with the Hamilton soundtrack. Lin-Manuel Miranda has done no wrong since he entered my life with the In The Heights soundtrack. So that's what I've been doing with my free-time, learning all the words and jamming out to Hamilton.

I don't know what else to tell you about my "adult" life. My writing professor questions quotation marks and also sentence fragments, but he's a genius, so I ask no questions. My friends are doing big things: graduating, law school, teaching, graduate school, parenting, etc. We're making it. Glad I could squeeze in this post.