With the poetry unit coming to an end, I feel a reluctance to move into fiction. I didn’t quite experience this in my freshman year, where I was happy to experience more fiction writing. So while I am still happy to start the fiction unit after winter break, I’m sure it’ll be difficult to get back to a less abstract mindset. Being so focused on poetry, I haven’t written a full-length short story since the summer, almost six months ago, which is odd to say. Summer doesn’t feel that far away at all.

Last year, however, my feelings going into fiction were quite the opposite. My poems tended to start nicely but trail off towards the end, and I felt frustrated with the abstract nature of the poetry I read. I was eager to move on to fiction because I felt better versed in it than I did with poetry. I’d read many books and written in and out of school since I was a child, but not many of those experiences were with poetry. In elementary school, I had even attempted to write a book. I’d like to believe it was good for a third grader. I struggled to analyze and write poetry more than fiction, simply for lack of exposure. 

Over the past summer, however, writing poetry began coming to me more easily, and I was excited to start school and begin with poetry. I remember in the previous year struggling to write respond to homework prompts. I spent far too long searching for what I wanted to say and run out of time writing it all down. What to write about now comes to mind faster.

Through this year’s poetry unit, I have picked up so much more than I did in my freshman year. So going into this year’s fiction unit, I feel happy at all the progress I’ve made in the previous poetry unit and eager to make just as much progress in fiction.

By Zai Deriu

Class of 2022