During the first half of freshman year I was in a constant state of confusion and anxiety, and I pretty much constantly looked to the more experienced creative writers as examples. But when sophomore year started, not only was I more experienced, but the new freshmen were now looking up to me and my peers as examples. This was a very strange experience for me, especially due to the fact that most of the freshmen just so happen to be older than me. Now that the first half of my second year is almost done, and with the poetry show approaching, which I am greatly looking forward to, (Go see it assuming it hasn’t already happened by the time this is being read,) the freshman are stressing about the upcoming show while I, who am no longer stressing, am shunted into the role of helping them out.
Aside from having a new freshmen class, my thoughts on poetry changed a lot since this time last year. When I started last year I hated poetry, and thought it stupid, but now that I have one poetry unit under my belt as well as most of a second, I have come to really love poetry. I still don’t read it in my free time or anything, (Not that I have free time,) but it has become one of my most practiced writing forms. Not only have I learned to enjoy it and gotten more experienced at it, but becoming a poet has also made me better at other forms of writing, by teaching me how to use more flowery and descriptive language.
My perspective on performance has also changed a ton since last year. Whereas at this point last year I had horrible stage fright, and the things I was looking forward to the least were the two performances, now they are the things I’m looking forward to the most.
All this retrospective thinking has made me wonder how things will change next year and the year after that, but I suppose all will be found out when it happens.