Tag Archives: middle age college student

First Week of Senior Year Done

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August 30 2025

First week of senior year done! I’m really going to enjoy film theory, poetry, creative nonfiction, and politics in science fiction film and literature. The sci-fi class is nearly 3 hours long. It’s only once a week, so that’s good. But sitting still for 3 hours is going to be torture.

The math class isn’t that bad. It’s just the amount of time it takes. I can read and write lightning fast. But I have to slow down for the math. That’s even more torturous than sitting still for 3 hours. But thank goodness it’s online and I have access to tutors if I need it. When you haven’t done this type of math for over 30 years, it’s like trying to learn a foreign language!

Just a reminder that I won’t be on social media much during the semester. If you message me and don’t hear from me in about a week, give me a nudge. You’ll see me pop in on the weekends, though. Here’s my stack of books for the semester. So exciting! The math book is digital. Thank goodness! Oh, it is so very cool when I’m walking to class and I look up to see my kid walking towards me. I really love that so much! xoxo

Limber – essays by Angela Pelster
Brown Neon – Essays by Raquel Gutiérrez
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
African American Poetry – 250 Years of Struggle and Song
When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz
Collected Poems of Rita Dove: 1974-2004
Life Stories: Profiles from The New Yorker
The Art of the Personal Essay
Super Gay Poems by Stephanie Burt
Husbandry – Poems by mathew dickman

First Day of 16th Grade for Camilla

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August 25 2025

First day of school!! With a moody sky! ✊💙🎉💙✊

Fall Semester 2025 Begins!

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August 23 2025

Fall semester at UNR begins on Monday! You will see less of me around here. I may get the chance to post here and there during the week and I’ll pop in on the weekends. If you message me, and don’t hear back within a week, give me a nudge.

Thank you to the folks who have subscribed, with an added hug to my one paid subscriber, my lovely step-sister. I’m deeply grateful to all of you for allowing my writings to populate your email inbox.

My classes:

Poetry

Creative Non-fiction

Film Theory: This course moves from film theory’s beginnings in the silent era and progresses to our contemporary moment. We will pair key moments in film theory’s history with a variety of film examples to gain a theoretically sophisticated vocabulary for discussing what movies are and do.

Science Fiction and Politics: Explore social and political implications of scientific and technological advancement through the lens of science fiction film. Themes include speculative politics, social change, surveillance, race and identity, and the environment. Use imagination and skepticism both to create original science fiction that: 1) contemplates issues you care about in an evolving scientific and technological landscape, and 2) interrogates your understanding of the mechanisms governing the progress of history.

Math – Core math I must have to graduate. Ugh!

I’m very excited about all of these classes! Except for the math. I haven’t done this type of math since my advanced math classes in high school. But, that was back in the ice age, man! My soon to be 20-year-old, Gigi, and I will both graduate in spring 2026!

This summer I tried to get as much as possible done: long walks in treasured spaces, submitting poetry and short stories to lit magazines, Lillian’s appointments (and mine), deep cleaning and organizing around the house, especially Lillian’s room, my to do list and to do pile, and meeting up with friends. I didn’t get to everything, but at least now I have the energy. I have a day and a half to knock out a bit more!

I really only had energy the last half of the summer. Here’s to feeling better, having the energy to move, writing, and learning, and to accidentally finding out that ADHD meds are magic!

The Modern World – Core Credit – Finished!

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June 6 2025

Next to last core requirement done! We took the mid-term last Thursday and the final exam today! And the class is finished! A 14 day whirl wind of The Modern World. Wild times! I really loved learning about, and brushing up on, this time period. It’s absolutely mind blowing. Here’s the material we covered after the mid-term:

Industrial Revolution

Sarah Stickney Ellis from
The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits
(1839)

Friedrich Engels
The Condition of the Working Class in England
(1844)

Charles Darwin
Excerpt from On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
(1859)

Manifesto of the Communist Party
by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
February 1848

World War I and Interwar Period

Dulce et Decorum Est
BY Wilfred Owen
1921

William Butler Yeats
The Second Coming
(1919)

Milk Raj Anand
Across the Black Waters
1937

Mohandas K Gandhi
from Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule
(1938)

Sigmund Freud
Civilization and Its Discontents
1933

World War II and Decolonization

Elie Wiesel
Night
1958

Aime Cesaire
Discourse on Colonialism
1955

Edward Said
Orientalism

Postwar Period: Cold War, Postmodernism, Neoliberalism

United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Jean-Francois Lyotard
T
he Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge
1979

Jean Baudrillard
from The Precession of Simulacra
1981

Wendy Brown
Undoing the Demos:
Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution
2015

We also had to write a 5-7 page essay:

In this essay assignment, you will identify a key theme that strikes your interest from among those we studied over the term and argue its importance to the modern world by pointing out the thinking that makes such a theme possible.

My goal is to graduate Spring 2026 so I had to take a few summer classes. Fascinating to connect the dots to what is currently happening with this fucked up administration. Half the population needs to take this class.

The Modern World = Compressed Version

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May 18 2025

Begins tomorrow: The Modern World = An entire semester packed into a mini-session of 14 days. I’ve truly lost my mind. 🤔 Hey little Camilla, if you only knew the adventures you’ve got in store, whew! 💥💥💥

Analyzes Europe’s legacy in shaping world ideas, institutions, and cultures. Includes Renaissance; Reformation; Enlightenment; Romanticism; development of science and industry; political revolutions; colonialism; postcolonialism; globalization.

Throwback Post: UNR Spring 2025 Semester Begins

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**THROWBACK POST**

January 25 2025

Spring 2025 semester began last week. I’m taking more classes, but have a much better schedule. I’m on campus two days a week, with 3 of the 6 classes being online. I’ll be doing tons of reading and writing and movie watching. I love the classes, but having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. That should get better in a couple of weeks, or not, with the current state of affairs.

I’m on track to graduate Spring 2026, along with my amazing kid!! I love you, Gigi! ❤️ Then the plan is to get a MFA in poetry. UNR has a great low residency program! Here’s a photo of my books, with two books having not arrived yet as I purchased them from a locally owned bookstore and not the Bezo’s owned company.

Anyone have thoughts on any of these books?

List of my classes:

Intro to Creative Writing (Creative Writing)
Craft & Forms of Creative Writing – How horror benefits fiction and poetry (Creative Writing)
Screenwriting Film & TV (Creative Writing)
Women in Literature (Social Justice)
Disability Ethics (Social Justice)
Nevada Constitution (Core Credit)

Time to Celebrate – On Track to Graduate Spring 2026

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May 10 2025

Hallelujah! Took my last final yesterday and just turned in my last assignment! I have reached the conclusion of the spring 2025 semester. Final grades won’t be posted until May 16th, but I already know that I’ve got an A in all classes.

I’m on track to graduate Spring 2026 and so is Thomas. I’ll get to walk the stage with my kid! Exciting, proud times!

Here’s the feedback for the creative non-fiction story I just revised and submitted, titled Diary of Starting Over.

“You have such a knack for conveying the bare essence of a traumatic situation in such a way that the reader can immediately understand and empathize.There are moments of immense heartbreak. Related to this, you also have an incredible ability to balance depressing topics with moments of levity and triumph. The line where you ask “Who the hell can say that to somebody they love?” hits so hard, and I absolutely read it in your voice, haha. Lastly, the nonlinearity of this piece is deftly handled.”

“I think one of the biggest strengths of your piece is the consistent strings and parallels. It can be hard to keep timelines straight when writing about many events over a long time, but you were able to keep everything succinct and orderly. You managed to take a tumultuous story and turn it into something with a positive spin, and I think that’s beautiful.”

Here’s the first paragraph and last paragraph. If you want to read the full story, I’ll be sharing with my Substack subscribers soon.

Starting over. How many times have you had to start over? I’m talking cataclysmic starting over. Life changing, starting over events. I’ve had five life changing, starting over experiences. I was 10-years-old the first time. At 38, I started over again for the last time. So far.

He chose not to use the already reserved ticket for the Christmas visit. Over the next several months, we argued, we talked about working things out, and we argued more. In the summer of 2007, I decided there was no going back. He stayed in Seattle. We stayed in Reno. It was the right decision.

***

That was the last time I had to start over.

So far.

A Girl Reflects – Craft and Forms of Creative Writing

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May 3 2025

Just turned in the last assignment for Craft and Forms of Creative Writing. A 62 page portfolio of all assignments with an opening reflection – 15,500 words. Damn! I have created so much this semester. My mind is currently toast!

Reflection
Horror Short Story (Original and 2 revisions)
World Building Exercise and Short Story (Revised)
Alt Ending to My Death by Lisa Tuttle
Treatment rewriting They Live (1980’s Zombie Alien movie)
Craft Analysis of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Persian Revenge Horror – Fantastic Movie!)