Burn out.  It happens to the best of us.  Last semester, I took seven classes totaling 19 credits, and worked part-time.  By the end of the semester, I found myself burned out and I didn’t want to write, let alone read—which is not good for a literature, writing and film major.  I felt as if I had tapped every creative nook and cranny dry and lost a whole lot of joy in the process.  Summer came and I took one class, and then all of a sudden I’m entrenched in a new semester—only five classes or 15 credits, including an internship, freelance writing job, involvement with a campus writing club, and hopes to work in the writing center as a tutor.  The intensity of my schedule in this, my final 16 weeks before I take the graduation walk, is elevated.  I can feel it in my weekly assignments—the discussion board posts, the readings, the portfolios and special projects. 

In order to prepare for the next few months, this weekend I drove up north to a cabin in the woods, a bag of homework in one hand and my laptop in the other.  Amazing what a new environment can do to change a perspective, clear the mind of everyday normal—and not so normal (could the plumbing really be acting up when I’m 255 miles away?)—goings on.  A 2 ½ hour hike through the woods later, a deer bounding over fallen trees, the gobbling of wild turkeys, the scent of a wood burning stove, crazy yet loveable lodge keepers—all of it new fodder to interject into old stories and to assist those in the works.  And this morning I took a ride on a feisty gelding named Cisco, Wild Bill McClain guiding the way along picturesque mountain trails…true story. ~ cs